Systems and methods for organizing content for mobile media services

ABSTRACT

In embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods for organizing content for media services may comprise organizing content from a plurality of data sources having information relevant to a channel, transforming the content into short messages suitable for delivery to a user via at least two of SMS, MMS, WAP, e-mail, and the Internet, and managing a script of such messages, wherein the next short message in a series is based on a user response to a prior short message in the series. User engagement may be facilitated by developing locally produced, personalized channels for delivery of relevant content. The mobile platform may enable building mobile-oriented communities around original content. Content may be local, authentic, relevant, insider, original, aggregated, a multi-modal mash-up, and the like.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/026,286, filed on Feb. 5, 2008, which claims priority toU.S. Provisional Application No. 60/888,310, filed Feb. 5, 2007; andU.S. Provisional Application No. 60/940,296, filed May 25, 2007, each ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present invention relates generally to media services. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods formobile media services comprising locally produced, personalized channelsfor delivery of relevant content.

2. Description of the Related Art

The Internet has emerged as a dominant venue for access to news andinformation. No doubt ease of access to a depth and breadth of timelycontent has facilitated the Internet's dominance in these fields. Manymobile devices have recently begun to deploy methods for mobile Internetaccess. However, mobile internet access is often restricted by downloadspeeds and awkward user interfaces.

The widespread access to mobile networks has led to rapid growth in thenumbers of users of SMS and SMS alert systems. Typically, SMS is used asa means to communicate with other SMS users, but can also be used todeliver content such as news and information. In general, such contentmay be delivered to the mobile device with little interaction from theuser required, which may result in irrelevant content.

Thus, a need exists for a method to deploy customizable, relevantcontent to mobile devices via a protocol such as SMS.

SUMMARY

Mobile media services enable providing relevant content that may betransformed for delivery to a user's handset. Users may interact withthe content in a templated or non-templated fashion to receiveadditional content, view an advertisement, and subscribe to a channelfor content delivery.

Provided herein are systems and methods for mobile media services anddelivery of mobile content. In an aspect of the invention, a method fordelivering mobile content may involve acquiring content, transformingthe content, wherein transforming comprises one or more of compressingtext, case-correcting text, and adding tone, style, or bias, anddelivering the content to a mobile device. The content may befeed-driven content; editorial-driven content; content that isassociated with a feed, an author, an editor, and so forth. Deliveringthe content to a mobile device may occur via a pull (for example andwithout limitation, in response to a request) and/or via a push (forexample and without limitation, via a publish/subscribe technique). In avariation of this method, the method further comprises targeting thecontent.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method may compriseaccessing a definition of a state machine, the states of the machinebeing associated with messages, the transitions between states beingassociated with inputs, the state machine containing a start state andat least one end state; receiving the messages; transforming themessages for delivery to a handset; and beginning with a state that isthe start state and continuing until the state is an end state:transmitting the message that is associated with the state; receiving aninput from the handset in response to the message; selecting a nextstate by following a transition from the state, the transition beingassociated with the input; and setting the state to the next state. Inan embodiment, the method further comprises receiving approval of themessages at some time prior to transmitting the messages. In anembodiment, the message that is associated with the start state may be aprovocation. In an embodiment, the messages may be received from a feed.In an embodiment, the messages may relate to at least one of contentdelivery, user acquisition, subscription, billing, and profilemanagement. In an embodiment, at least one template may specify thedefinition of the state machine. The template may be a message flowtemplate. In an embodiment, the state machine may be associated with achannel. In an embodiment, transmitting the message that is associatedwith the state further comprises transmitting a request for reply. Therequest for reply may comprise an associated command alias to serve asthe input. The command alias may be at least one of a number, a letter,a short word, a code, and a combination of a letter and a number. Thecommand alias may be unique to at least one of an individual user, a setof users with similar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channelto which a user is subscribed. The command alias may be used to accessnon-templated content. A user may access more than one state with asingle command alias. In an embodiment, the messages may include aprovocation message, a description message, a pick message, aninformation message, and a short description message. In an embodiment,the messages may include a provocation message, a description message,an information message, and a what's-nearby message. In an embodiment,the messages may include a provocation message, a first personal pickmessage, a second personal pick message, a hang-outs message, andcontact information. In an embodiment, the messages may include aprovocation message, an introduction message, a body message, aconclusion message, and a review message. In an embodiment, the messagesmay include a top picks message, an event message, a review message, adescription message, a picks message, and an information message.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method may includetransmitting a message including content to a handset, soliciting aresponse message, wherein the solicitation indicates a short formcommand structure for the response, receiving a response from thehandset including a short form command; and processing the responseusing the short form command. In the system and method, the short formcommand may be at least one of a number, a letter, multiples of letters,short words, and a number and a letter. In the system and method, theshort form command may increment with each request for response. In thesystem and method, the short form command may indicate a desire toreceive all available content associated with the message. In the systemand method, the short form command may indicate that no further messagesshould be sent. In the system and method, the short form commandindicates that the user should receive a phone call. In the system andmethod, the short form command may be persistent for a defined period oftime. In the system and method, the short form command may be persistentuntil a set of commands allocated to at least one of the user andchannel has been exhausted. In the system and method, the short formcommand may be unique to at least one of an individual user, a set ofusers with similar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel towhich a user is subscribed. In the system and method, interpreting theshort form command may be done without regard to at least one of thechannel the user is currently receiving messages from, a message theuser received, and when a message was received by a user. In the systemand method, the short form command may facilitate navigation of contentin a non-templated fashion, user acquisition, subscription, and profilemanagement. In the system and method, the content of the message may betransformed for delivery to the handset. In the system and method, themessage content may relate to at least one of weather, advertising,news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, culture, community,user-generated content, and social networking. In the system and method,the message may be transmitted via at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, theInternet, and e-mail.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method may include receivingcontent from a source, transforming the content into a format suitablefor delivery to a handset of the end user, transmitting a messageincluding the content to a handset, soliciting a response message,wherein the solicitation indicates a short form command structure forthe response, receiving a response from the handset including a shortform command, and processing the response using the short form command.In the system and method, the short form command may be at least one ofa number, a letter, multiples of letters, short words, and a number anda letter. In the system and method, the short form command may incrementwith each request for response. In the system and method, the short formcommand may indicate a desire to receive all available contentassociated with the message. In the system and method, the short formcommand may indicate that no further messages should be sent. In thesystem and method, the short form command indicates that the user shouldreceive a phone call. In the system and method, the short form commandmay be persistent for a defined period of time. In the system andmethod, the short form command may be persistent until a set of commandsallocated to at least one of the user and channel has been exhausted. Inthe system and method, the short form command may be unique to at leastone of an individual user, a set of users with similar subscriptionprofiles, a channel, and each channel to which a user is subscribed. Inthe system and method, interpreting the short form command may be donewithout regard to at least one of the channel the user is currentlyreceiving messages from, a message the user received, and when a messagewas received by a user. In the system and method, the short form commandmay facilitate navigation of content in a non-templated fashion, useracquisition, subscription, and profile management. In the system andmethod, the content of the message may be transformed for delivery tothe handset. In the system and method, the message content may relate toat least one of weather, advertising, news, sports, entertainment,lifestyle, culture, community, user-generated content, and socialnetworking. In the system and method, the message may be transmitted viaat least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, the Internet, and e-mail. In the systemand method, transforming may include at least one of text compression,case correction, handset display size correction, and handset aspectratio correction. In the system and method, transforming may includeadding tone to content received from a feed. In the system and method,transforming may include adding bias to content received from a feed. Inthe system and method, transforming may include adding style to contentreceived from a feed.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method for multi-modalmobile media services may include delivering a message including contentto a user handset, associating an offer for additional content with themessage, associating at least response message solicitation with theoffer, wherein the solicitation is associated with a mode for accessingthe additional content and a short form command structure, receiving aresponse from the handset including a short form command, transmittingthe additional content via the mode indicated by the response, andexecuting a command using the short form command structure. In thesystem and method, the additional content may be accessible via at leastone of SMS messaging, a WAP link, a click-to-call link, content fromanother channel, instant messaging, Internet search, and an Internetpage. In the system and method, the content may also be accessible by atleast one of SMS messaging, a WAP link, a click-to-call link, contentfrom another channel, instant messaging, e-mail, Internet search, and anInternet page. In the system and method, transmitting may includeaccessing a WAP interface. In the system and method, transmitting mayinclude accessing an internet browser. In the system and method,transmitting may include accessing a telephony function. In the systemand method, transmitting may include accessing an e-mail application. Inthe system and method, the short form command may be at least one of anumber, a letter, multiples of letters, short words, and a number and aletter. In the system and method, the short form command may incrementwith each request for response. In the system and method, the short formcommand may indicate a desire to receive all available contentassociated with the message. In the system and method, the short formcommand may indicate that no further messages should be sent. In thesystem and method, the short form command indicates that the user shouldreceive a phone call. In the system and method, the short form commandmay be persistent for a defined period of time. In the system andmethod, the short form command may be persistent until a set of commandaliases allocated to at least one of the user and channel has beenexhausted. In the system and method, the short form command may beunique to at least one of an individual user, a set of users withsimilar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which auser is subscribed. In the system and method, interpreting the shortform command may be done without regard to at least one of the channelthe user is currently receiving messages. In the system and method, thecontent of the message may be transformed for delivery to the handset.In the system and method, the message content may relate to at least oneof weather, advertising, news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle,culture, community, user-generated content, and social networking.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method of generating amobile content narrative may include accessing a definition of a statemachine, the states of the machine being associated with messagesincluding a narrative, the transitions between states being associatedwith inputs, transmitting the message that is associated with the state,receiving an input from the handset in response to the message,selecting a next state by following a transition from the state, thetransition being associated with the handset input and the next statebeing associated with the next message in a narrative, and setting thestate to the next state. In the system and method, the message that maybe associated with the start state is a provocation. In the system andmethod, the message may be received from a feed. In the system andmethod, the message may relate to at least one of content delivery, useracquisition, subscription, billing, and profile management. In thesystem and method, at least one template may specify the definition ofthe state machine. The template may be a message flow template. In thesystem and method, the state machine may be associated with a channel.In the system and method, transmitting the message that is associatedwith the state includes transmitting a request for reply. In the systemand method, the request for reply includes an associated command aliasto serve as the input. In the system and method, the command alias is atleast one of a number, a letter, a short word, a code, and a combinationof a letter and a number. In the system and method, the command alias isunique to at least one of an individual user, a set of users withsimilar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which auser is subscribed. In the system and method, the command alias is usedto access non-templated content. In the system and method, a user mayaccess more than one state with a single command alias. In the systemand method, the content of the message may be transformed into a formatsuitable for delivery to a handset. In the system and method, themessage may be transmitted via at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, theInternet, and e-mail.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method of generating amobile content narrative includes accessing a definition of a statemachine, the states of the machine being associated with messagesincluding a narrative, the transitions between states being associatedwith inputs, transmitting the message that is associated with the state,wherein the message includes content transformed into a format suitablefor delivery to a handset, receiving an input from the handset inresponse to the message, selecting a next state by following atransition from the state, the transition being associated with thehandset input and the next state being associated with the next messagein a narrative, and setting the state to the next state. In the systemand method, the message that may be associated with the start state is aprovocation. In the system and method, the message may be received froma feed. In the system and method, the message may relate to at least oneof content delivery, user acquisition, subscription, billing, andprofile management. In the system and method, at least one template mayspecify the definition of the state machine. The template may be amessage flow template. In the system and method, the state machine maybe associated with a channel. In the system and method, transmitting themessage that is associated with the state includes transmitting arequest for reply. In the system and method, the request for replyincludes an associated command alias to serve as the input. In thesystem and method, the command alias is at least one of a number, aletter, a short word, a code, and a combination of a letter and anumber. In the system and method, the command alias is unique to atleast one of an individual user, a set of users with similarsubscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which a user issubscribed. In the system and method, the command alias is used toaccess non-templated content. In the system and method, a user mayaccess more than one state with a single command alias. In the systemand method, the content of the message may be transformed into a formatsuitable for delivery to a handset. In the system and method, themessage may be transmitted via at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, theInternet, and e-mail.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method of generating amobile content narrative includes accessing a definition of a statemachine, the states of the machine being associated with messagesincluding a narrative, the transitions between states being associatedwith inputs, transmitting the message that is associated with the state,wherein the message indicates a short form command structure for theresponse to the message, receiving an input from the handset in responseto the message, wherein the input includes a short form command,selecting a next state by following a transition from the state, thetransition being based on the short form command input from the handsetand the next state being associated with the next message in anarrative, and setting the state to the next state. In the system andmethod, the message that may be associated with the start state is aprovocation. In the system and method, the message may be received froma feed. In the system and method, the message may relate to at least oneof content delivery, user acquisition, subscription, billing, andprofile management. In the system and method, at least one template mayspecify the definition of the state machine. The template may be amessage flow template. In the system and method, the state machine maybe associated with a channel. In the system and method, transmitting themessage that is associated with the state includes transmitting arequest for reply. In the system and method, the request for replyincludes an associated command alias to serve as the input. In thesystem and method, the command alias is at least one of a number, aletter, a short word, a code, and a combination of a letter and anumber. In the system and method, the command alias is unique to atleast one of an individual user, a set of users with similarsubscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which a user issubscribed. In the system and method, the command alias is used toaccess non-templated content. In the system and method, a user mayaccess more than one state with a single command alias. In the systemand method, the content of the message may be transformed into a formatsuitable for delivery to a handset. In the system and method, themessage may be transmitted via at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, theInternet, and e-mail.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method of generating amobile content narrative includes accessing a definition of a statemachine, the states of the machine being associated with messagesincluding a narrative, the transitions between states being associatedwith inputs, transmitting the message that is associated with the state,receiving an input in response to the message, selecting a next state byfollowing a transition from the state, the transition being associatedwith the input and the next state being associated with the next messagein a narrative, wherein the next message in a narrative is transmittedby at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, e-mail, and the Internet, and settingthe state to the next state. In the system and method, the message thatmay be associated with the start state is a provocation. In the systemand method, the message may be received from a feed. In the system andmethod, the message may relate to at least one of content delivery, useracquisition, subscription, billing, and profile management. In thesystem and method, at least one template may specify the definition ofthe state machine. The template may be a message flow template. In thesystem and method, the state machine may be associated with a channel.In the system and method, transmitting the message that is associatedwith the state includes transmitting a request for reply. In the systemand method, the request for reply includes an associated command aliasto serve as the input. In the system and method, the command alias is atleast one of a number, a letter, a short word, a code, and a combinationof a letter and a number. In the system and method, the command alias isunique to at least one of an individual user, a set of users withsimilar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which auser is subscribed. In the system and method, the command alias is usedto access non-templated content. In the system and method, a user mayaccess more than one state with a single command alias. In the systemand method, the content of the message may be transformed into a formatsuitable for delivery to a handset.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method include organizingcontent from a plurality of data sources having information relevant toa channel, transforming the content into short messages suitable fordelivery to and presentation on a handset, and managing a script of aseries of such short messages, the script determining a next shortmessage based on a user response to a previous short message. The systemand method includes approving the content of the message prior totransmitting the messages. In the system and method, the source is afeed. In the system and method, the source is an author. In the systemand method, transforming includes at least one of text compression, casecorrection, handset display size correction, and handset aspect ratiocorrection. In the system and method, transforming includes adding toneto content received from a feed. In the system and method, transformingincludes adding bias to content received from a feed. In the system andmethod, transforming includes adding style to content received from afeed. In the system and method, the messages relate to at least one ofcontent delivery, user acquisition, subscription, billing, and profilemanagement. In the system and method, the script is a message flowtemplate. The system and method includes associating an advertisementwith the message. Associating the advertisement with the message is donecontextually. In the system and method, the message includes a requestfor reply. The request for reply includes an associated command alias toserve as the input. In the system and method, the command alias is atleast one of a number, a letter, a short word, a code, and a combinationof a letter and a number. In the system and method, the command alias isunique to at least one of an individual user, a set of users withsimilar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which auser is subscribed. In the system and method, the message contentrelates to at least one of weather, advertising, news, sports,entertainment, lifestyle, culture, community, user-generated content,and social networking.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method includes organizingcontent from a plurality of data sources having information relevant toa channel, transforming the content into short messages suitable fordelivery to and presentation on a handset, and managing a script of suchshort messages based on user responses, wherein the response comprises ashort form command and wherein the next short message in a series isbased on the script and on the received short form command. The systemand method includes approving the content of the message prior totransmitting the messages. In the system and method, the source is afeed. In the system and method, the source is an author. In the systemand method, transforming includes at least one of text compression, casecorrection, handset display size correction, and handset aspect ratiocorrection. In the system and method, transforming includes adding toneto content received from a feed. In the system and method, transformingincludes adding bias to content received from a feed. In the system andmethod, transforming includes adding style to content received from afeed. In the system and method, the messages relate to at least one ofcontent delivery, user acquisition, subscription, billing, and profilemanagement. In the system and method, the script is a message flowtemplate. The system and method includes associating an advertisementwith the message. Associating the advertisement with the message is donecontextually. In the system and method, the message includes a requestfor reply. The request for reply includes an associated short formcommand to serve as the input. In the system and method, the short formcommand is at least one of a number, a letter, a short word, a code, anda combination of a letter and a number. In the system and method, theshort form command is unique to at least one of an individual user, aset of users with similar subscription profiles, a channel, and eachchannel to which a user is subscribed. In the system and method, themessage content relates to at least one of weather, advertising, news,sports, entertainment, lifestyle, culture, community, user-generatedcontent, and social networking.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method includes organizingcontent from a plurality of data sources having information relevant toa channel, transforming the content into short messages suitable fordelivery to a user via at least two of SMS, MMS, WAP, e-mail, and theInternet, and managing a script of such messages, wherein the next shortmessage in a series is based on a user response to a prior short messagein the series. The system and method includes approving the content ofthe message prior to transmitting the messages. In the system andmethod, the source is a feed. In the system and method, the source is anauthor. In the system and method, transforming includes at least one oftext compression, case correction, handset display size correction, andhandset aspect ratio correction. In the system and method, transformingincludes adding tone to content received from a feed. In the system andmethod, transforming includes adding bias to content received from afeed. In the system and method, transforming includes adding style tocontent received from a feed. In the system and method, the messagesrelate to at least one of content delivery, user acquisition,subscription, billing, and profile management. In the system and method,the script is a message flow template. The system and method includesassociating an advertisement with the message. Associating theadvertisement with the message is done contextually. The system andmethod includes soliciting a response message, wherein the responseincludes a short form command structure. In the system and method, theshort form command is at least one of a number, a letter, a short word,a code, and a combination of a letter and a number. In the system andmethod, the short form command is unique to at least one of anindividual user, a set of users with similar subscription profiles, achannel, and each channel to which a user is subscribed. In the systemand method, the message content relates to at least one of weather,advertising, news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, culture, community,user-generated content, and social networking.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method includes organizingcontent from a plurality of data sources having information relevant toa channel, transforming the content into messages suitable for deliveryto and presentation on a handset, accessing a definition of a statemachine, the states of the machine being associated with the messages,the transitions between states being associated with inputs,transmitting the message that is associated with the state, selecting anext state by following a transition from the state, the transitionbeing associated with the input and the next state being associated withthe next message in a narrative, and managing a script of such messagesbased on the inputs. In the system and method, the source is a feed. Inthe system and method, the source is an author. In the system andmethod, transforming includes at least one of text compression, casecorrection, handset display size correction, and handset aspect ratiocorrection. In the system and method, transforming includes adding toneto content received from a feed. In the system and method, transformingincludes adding bias to content received from a feed. In the system andmethod, transforming includes adding style to content received from afeed. In the system and method, the messages relate to at least one ofcontent delivery, user acquisition, subscription, billing, and profilemanagement. In the system and method, the script is a message flowtemplate. The system and method includes associating an advertisementwith the message. Associating the advertisement with the message is donecontextually. In the system and method, the message includes a requestfor reply. The request for reply includes an associated command alias toserve as the input. In the system and method, the command alias is atleast one of a number, a letter, a short word, a code, and a combinationof a letter and a number. In the system and method, the command alias isunique to at least one of an individual user, a set of users withsimilar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which auser is subscribed. In the system and method, the message contentrelates to at least one of weather, advertising, news, sports,entertainment, lifestyle, culture, community, user-generated content,and social networking. In the system and method, at least one templatespecifies the definition of the state machine. The template is a messageflow template. In the system and method, the state machine is associatedwith a channel. In the system and method, the content of the message istransformed into a format suitable for delivery to a handset. In thesystem and method, the message is transmitted via at least one of SMS,MMS, WAP, the Internet, and e-mail.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method of a dynamic useracquisition platform includes requesting a mobile device identifier froman interested user, capturing a mobile device identifier submitted bythe user and associating it with a short form command, setting a cookieon the user's machine linking the mobile device identifier and the shortform command, generating a message and sending it to the mobile devicefor which the identifier is provided, wherein the message indicates thatthe user should reply with the short form command to receive additionalcontent, and tracking the short form command received using the cookieto identify the origin of the acquisition. The system and methodincludes signing up the user for content delivery. In the system andmethod, the content is transmitted by at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP,e-mail, and the Internet. In the system and method, includestransmitting a channel subscription confirmation message for theindicated channel, including a request for reply to confirm thesubscription. The channel subscription message includes at least one ofinformation regarding billing, information regarding the duration of afree trial, information regarding the host of the channels, andinformation regarding content distribution frequency. The system andmethod includes transmitting a message indicating content subcategoriesfor the selected content available in a market, wherein each availablecontent subcategory is associated with a unique short form command. Thesystem and method include generating a user profile with the usersubscription information. The user profile auto-populates when the usertransmits a short form command. In the system and method, the short formcommand is at least one of a number, a letter, a short word, a code, anda combination of a letter and a number. In the system and method, theshort form command is unique to at least one of an individual user, aset of users with similar subscription profiles, a channel, and eachchannel to which a user is subscribed. In the system and method, thecontent is transformed into a format suitable for delivery to a handset.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method of advertising on amobile media services platform includes delivering a message includingcontent to a user handset and associating an advertisement with themessage, offering the user related advertisement information from withinthe advertisement, associating at least one request for response withthe offer, wherein the request for response is associated with a shortform command structure; and transmitting the related advertisementinformation in accordance with the short form command. The system andmethod include tracking the short form command to target advertisementsto specific users. The system and method include tracking the short formcommand to measure unique impressions. The advertisement is associatedcontextually with the content. In the system and method, the relatedadvertisement information is associated contextually with the content.In the system and method, the related advertisement information isaccessible on at least one of the Internet, a Web search page, InternetYellow Pages, mobile search, SMS, WAP, directory assistance, an instantmessage, a click-to-call link, another channel, e-mail, and a podcast.In the system and method, transmitting includes accessing a WAPinterface. In the system and method, transmitting includes accessing aninternet browser. In the system and method, transmitting includesaccessing a telephony function. In the system and method, transmittingincludes accessing an e-mail application. In the system and method, theshort form command is at least one of a number, a letter, multiples ofletters, short words, and a number and a letter. In the system andmethod, the short form command increments with each request forresponse. In the system and method, the short form command indicates adesire to receive all available content associated with the message. Inthe system and method, the short form command indicates that no furthermessages should be sent. In the system and method, the short formcommand indicates that the user should receive a phone call. In thesystem and method, the short form command is persistent for a definedperiod of time. In the system and method, the short form command ispersistent until a set of commands allocated to at least one of the userand channel has been exhausted. In the system and method, the short formcommand is unique to at least one of an individual user, a set of userswith similar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to whicha user is subscribed. In the system and method, disambiguating the shortform command is done without regard to at least one of the channel theuser is currently receiving messages.

In an aspect of the invention, a method of delivering mobile contentincludes accessing a definition of a state machine, the states of themachine being associated with messages, the transitions between statesbeing associated with inputs, transmitting the message that isassociated with the state, receiving an input from the handset inresponse to the message, selecting a next state by following atransition from the state, the transition being associated with thehandset input, and setting the state to the next state. The system andmethod includes requiring approval of the message before transmission.In the system and method, the message that may be associated with thestart state is a provocation. In the system and method, the message maybe received from a feed. In the system and method, the message mayrelate to at least one of content delivery, user acquisition,subscription, billing, and profile management. In the system and method,at least one template may specify the definition of the state machine.The template may be a message flow template. In the system and method,the state machine may be associated with a channel. In the system andmethod, transmitting the message that is associated with the stateincludes transmitting a request for reply. In the system and method, therequest for reply includes an associated command alias to serve as theinput. In the system and method, the command alias is at least one of anumber, a letter, a short word, a code, and a combination of a letterand a number. In the system and method, the command alias is unique toat least one of an individual user, a set of users with similarsubscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which a user issubscribed. In the system and method, the command alias is used toaccess non-templated content. In the system and method, a user mayaccess more than one state with a single command alias. In the systemand method, the content of the message may be transformed into a formatsuitable for delivery to a handset. In the system and method, themessage may be transmitted via at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, theInternet, and e-mail. In the system and method, the message flowtemplate includes at least one of a provocation message, a descriptionmessage, a pick message, an information message, and a short descriptionmessage. In the system and method, the message flow template includes atleast one of a provocation message, a description message, aninformation message, and a what's-nearby message. In the system andmethod, the message flow template includes at least one of a provocationmessage, a first personal pick message, a second personal pick message,a hang-outs message, and contact information. In the system and method,the message flow template includes at least one of a provocationmessage, an introduction message, a body message, a conclusion message,and a review message. In the system and method, the message flowtemplate includes at least one of a top picks message, an event message,a review message, a description message, a picks message, and aninformation message.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method of a mobile mediaservice includes receiving content from a source, transforming thecontent into a format suitable for delivery to a handset of the enduser, associating the content with a template, the template beingassociated with a message appropriate for a channel selected based onpersonal characteristics of an end user, and transmitting the message inaccordance with the template to the handsets of subscribers to thechannel. The system and method includes requiring approval of themessage before transmission. In the system and method, the message thatmay be associated with the start state is a provocation. In the systemand method, the message may be received from a feed. In the system andmethod, the message may be received from an author. In the system andmethod, the message may relate to at least one of content delivery, useracquisition, subscription, billing, and profile management. In thesystem and method, at least one template may specify the definition ofthe state machine. The template may be a message flow template. In thesystem and method, the state machine may be associated with a channel.In the system and method, transmitting the message that is associatedwith the state includes transmitting a request for reply. In the systemand method, the request for reply includes an associated command aliasto serve as the input. In the system and method, the command alias is atleast one of a number, a letter, a short word, a code, and a combinationof a letter and a number. In the system and method, the command alias isunique to at least one of an individual user, a set of users withsimilar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which auser is subscribed. In the system and method, the command alias is usedto access non-templated content. In the system and method, a user mayaccess more than one state with a single command alias. In the systemand method, the content of the message may be transformed into a formatsuitable for delivery to a handset. In the system and method, themessage may be transmitted via at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, theInternet, and e-mail. In the system and method, transforming may includeat least one of text compression, case correction, handset display sizecorrection, and handset aspect ratio correction. In the system andmethod, transforming may include adding tone to content received from afeed. In the system and method, transforming may include adding bias tocontent received from a feed. In the system and method, transforming mayinclude adding style to content received from a feed. The method andsystem includes associating an advertisement with the message.Associating the advertisement with the message is done contextually. Inthe system and method, the message content relates to at least one ofweather, advertising, news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, culture,community, user-generated content, and social networking.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method includes transmittinga message to a handset, associating a request for response with themessage, wherein the request for response includes a unique commandalias associated with content indicated by each available response tothe message, receiving a response from the handset including a uniquecommand alias, and processing the command alias in accordance with itsunique association to content requested in the response. In the systemand method, the short form command may be at least one of a number, aletter, multiples of letters, short words, and a number and a letter. Inthe system and method, the short form command may increment with eachrequest for response. In the system and method, the short form commandmay indicate a desire to receive all available content associated withthe message. In the system and method, the short form command mayindicate that no further messages should be sent. In the system andmethod, the short form command indicates that the user should receive aphone call. In the system and method, the short form command may bepersistent for a defined period of time. In the system and method, theshort form command may be persistent until a set of commands allocatedto at least one of the user and channel has been exhausted. In thesystem and method, the short form command may be unique to at least oneof an individual user, a set of users with similar subscriptionprofiles, a channel, and each channel to which a user is subscribed. Inthe system and method, interpreting the short form command may be donewithout regard to at least one of the channel the user is currentlyreceiving messages from, a message the user received, and when a messagewas received by a user. In the system and method, the short form commandmay facilitate navigation of content in a non-templated fashion, useracquisition, subscription, and profile management. In the system andmethod, the content of the message may be transformed for delivery tothe handset. In the system and method, the message content may relate toat least one of weather, advertising, news, sports, entertainment,lifestyle, culture, community, user-generated content, and socialnetworking. In the system and method, the message may be transmitted viaat least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, the Internet, and e-mail.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method for personalizedmobile media services includes receiving a subscription request to achannel from a user, the user being associated with a handset,subscribing the user to the channel selected by the user, the channelhaving content suitable for the personal tastes of the user, accessinginformation associated with the channel from a plurality of datasources, the data sources not being in a format for delivery to theuser's handset, transforming the messages into a format suitable fordelivery to the user's handset, and transmitting the messages to theuser's handset. The system and method includes charging a subscriptionfee for the mobile media service. The fee is one or more of a daily,weekly, monthly, yearly, on-demand, per channel, and per message fee. Inthe system and method, transforming may include at least one of textcompression, case correction, handset display size correction, andhandset aspect ratio correction. In the system and method, transformingmay include adding tone to content received from a feed. In the systemand method, transforming may include adding bias to content receivedfrom a feed. In the system and method, transforming may include addingstyle to content received from a feed. The method and system includesassociating an advertisement with the message. Associating theadvertisement with the message is done contextually. In the system andmethod, the message content relates to at least one of weather,advertising, news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, culture, community,user-generated content, and social networking. In the system and method,the messages are transmitted to the user's handset in accordance with atemplate.

In an embodiment, a system and method for user-originated mobile mediaservice subscription includes receiving a market selection message froma user indicating an interest of the user in receiving content relatedto a particular market, transmitting a message in response to the marketselection message indicating content categories available in thatmarket, wherein each available content category is associated with aunique command alias, receiving a response to the content categoriesmessage including a command alias, wherein the command alias isassociated with the selected content category, processing the commandalias in accordance with its association with the particular contentcategory, and subscribing the user to a channel for content distributionrelated to the selected content category. In the system and method, themarket selection message is transmitted from a user handset. In thesystem and method, the market selection message is transmitted bye-mail. In the system and method, the market selection message istransmitted by instant message. In the system and method, the marketselection message is transmitted from a web interface. The system andmethod includes transmitting a channel subscription confirmation messagefor the indicated content subcategory, including a request for reply toconfirm the subscription. The channel subscription message includes atleast one of information regarding billing, information regarding theduration of a free trial, information regarding the host of thechannels, and information regarding content distribution frequency. Thesystem and method includes transmitting a message indicating contentsubcategories for the selected content category available in a market,wherein each available content subcategory is associated with a uniquecommand alias. The system and method includes updating a user profilewith the user subscription information. The user profile auto-populateswhen the user transmits a command alias. In the system and method, themessages are transmitted via at least one of SMS, MMS, WAP, a webinterface, an e-mail, and an instant message.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method for multi-modalmobile media services includes delivering a message including content toa user handset, associating an offer for additional content with themessage, associating at least one request for response with the offer,wherein the request for response is associated with a mode for accessingthe additional content, and transmitting the additional content via themode indicated by the response. In the system and method, the additionalcontent may be accessible via at least one of SMS messaging, a WAP link,a click-to-call link, content from another channel, instant messaging,Internet search, and an Internet page. In the system and method, thecontent may also be accessible by at least one of SMS messaging, a WAPlink, a click-to-call link, content from another channel, instantmessaging, e-mail, Internet search, and an Internet page. In the systemand method, transmitting may include accessing a WAP interface. In thesystem and method, transmitting may include accessing an internetbrowser. In the system and method, transmitting may include accessing atelephony function. In the system and method, transmitting may includeaccessing an e-mail application. In the system and method, the requestfor response includes a unique command alias. The command alias may beat least one of a number, a letter, multiples of letters, short words,and a number and a letter. The command alias may increment with eachrequest for response. The command alias may indicate a desire to receiveall available content associated with the message. The command alias mayindicate that no further messages should be sent. In the system andmethod, the short form command indicates that the user should receive aphone call. The short form command alias may be persistent for a definedperiod of time. The short form command alias may be persistent until aset of command aliases allocated to at least one of the user and channelhas been exhausted. The short form command alias may be unique to atleast one of an individual user, a set of users with similarsubscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which a user issubscribed. Interpreting the command alias may be done without regard toat least one of the channel the user is currently receiving messagesfrom, a message the user received, and when a message was received by auser. In the system and method, the content of the message may betransformed for delivery to the handset. In the system and method, themessage content relates to at least one of weather, advertising, news,sports, entertainment, lifestyle, culture, community, user-generatedcontent, and social networking.

In an aspect of the invention, a method of advertising on a mobile mediaservices platform includes delivering a message including content to auser handset, associating an advertisement with the message, offeringthe user related advertisement information from within theadvertisement, associating at least one request for response with theoffer, wherein the request for response is associated with a method ofaccessing the related advertisement information, and transmitting therelated advertisement information via the method indicated by theresponse. In the method and system, the initial advertisement isdelivered via at least one of SMS, MMS or email and contains a link toadditional advertisement information on a WAP content page. The WAPadvertisement solicits an email address for the delivery of additionaladvertisement information via email. The email advertisement provideslinks to additional advertisement information on a Web page intended fordelivery to a PC. In the system and method, the initial message contentis the advertisement. In the method and system, the advertisement isassociated contextually with the content. In the method and system, therelated advertisement information is associated contextually with thecontent. In the method and system, the related advertisement informationis accessible on at least one of the Internet, a Web search page,Internet Yellow Pages, mobile search, SMS, WAP, directory assistance, aninstant message, a click-to-call link, another channel, e-mail, and apodcast. In the method and system, transmitting includes accessing a WAPinterface. In the method and system, transmitting includes accessing aninternet browser. In the method and system, transmitting includesaccessing a telephony function. In the method and system, transmittingincludes accessing an e-mail application. In the method and system, therequest for response includes a unique command alias. The command aliasis at least one of a number, a letter, multiples of letters, shortwords, and a number and a letter. The command alias increments with eachrequest for response. The command alias indicates a desire to receiveall available content associated with the message. The command aliasindicates that no further messages should be sent. In the system andmethod, the short form command indicates that the user should receive aphone call. The command alias is persistent for a defined period oftime. The command alias is persistent until a set of command aliasesallocated to at least one of the user and channel has been exhausted.The command alias is unique to at least one of an individual user, a setof users with similar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channelto which a user is subscribed. Disambiguating the command alias is donewithout regard to at least one of the channel the user is currentlyreceiving messages.

In an aspect of the invention, a system and method for providing mobilemedia services includes a content management platform for acquiring,processing, publishing, editorializing, transforming, and deliveringcontent to user handsets, a subscriber acquisition platform, incommunication with a subscription management platform, for acquiring andmanaging subscribers of the mobile media service, a subscriptionmanagement platform in communication with the content managementplatform for subscription management, and a user interface for settingpreferences, modifying, developing, and interacting with at least one ofthe content management platform, subscriber acquisition platform andsubscription management platform. In the system and method, thesubscription management platform includes a billing facility. In thesystem and method, the subscription management platform includes acommand disambiguation facility. In the system and method, thesubscription management platform includes a search facility. In thesystem and method, the subscription management platform includes anadvertisement integration facility. In the system and method, thesubscription management platform includes an analytics facility. In thesystem and method, the subscription management platform includes aserver-side session management facility. In the system and method, thesubscription management platform includes a profile creation andmanagement facility. In the system and method, the user interface isused to generate and manage a user profile. In the system and method,the user interface includes a toolbar. In the system and method, theuser interface includes a menu. In the system and method, the userinterface includes content authoring tools.

These and other systems, methods, objects, features, and advantages ofthe present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art fromthe following detailed description of the preferred embodiment and thedrawings. All documents mentioned herein are hereby incorporated intheir entirety by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The invention and the following detailed description of certainembodiments thereof may be understood by reference to the followingfigures:

FIG. 1 depicts a platform for mobile media services.

FIG. 2 depicts a system for mobile media services.

FIG. 3 depicts the online acquisition process.

FIG. 4 depicts the development process.

FIG. 5 depicts message flow templates for editorial channels.

FIG. 6 depicts a sample message flow.

FIG. 7 depicts an NFL team channel.

FIG. 8 depicts a local weather product.

FIG. 9 depicts a sample message flow demonstrating commanddisambiguation.

FIG. 10 depicts a sample message flow demonstrating commanddisambiguation.

FIG. 11 depicts a sample message flow for user acquisition demonstratingcommand disambiguation.

FIG. 12 depicts a process for subscription.

FIG. 13 depicts a sample message flow for user acquisition demonstratingcommand disambiguation.

FIG. 14 depicts a sample message flow for profile managementdemonstrating command disambiguation.

FIG. 15 depicts a method for an advertising campaign that can bedeployed across SMS, WAP, e-mail, and the Web.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Media services may comprise content delivery via a mobile platform. Userengagement may be facilitated by developing locally produced,personalized channels for delivery of relevant content. The mobileplatform may enable building mobile-oriented communities around originalcontent. Content may be local, authentic, relevant, insider, original,aggregated, a multi-modal mash-up, and the like.

Throughout this disclosure the phrase “for example” means “for exampleand without limitation.” Generally, any and all examples may be providedfor the purpose of illustration and not limitation. Throughout thisdisclosure, the term “content” may refer to feed-driven content;editorial-driven content; content that is associated with a feed,author, editor, and so forth.

Referring to FIG. 1, a content management platform 102 may comprise afeed engine 104, content transformation technologies 108, contentpublishing 110, editorial creation and management 112, and contentdelivery 114. A feed engine 104 may receive and process feeds forcontent delivery 114 to a plurality of channels. Feeds may be national,such as and without limitation, a weather feed from The Weather Channel,a sports feed from Stats, Inc. or TSN, a lifestyle feed from HGTV, andthe like. Feed formats may be an RSS feed, an XML feed, an Atom feed,and the like. Feeds may be processed for delivery to mobile devices. Forexample, to retrieve a text-only feed on a cellular phone, content maybe transformed from XML to xHTML, WAP, or the like.

In an embodiment, the content management platform 102 may use a feedengine 104 to provide control of the content being provided to theplurality of channels. The feed engine 104 may utilize a contentpublication service to organize content received from contentcontributors, provide edited content version control, distribute thecontent to the appropriate channel, or the like. In an embodiment, thecontent publication service may provide import and creation of contentmaterial, identification of all key contributors and their contentroles, assignment of roles and responsibilities to different contentcontributors, definition of the content workflow tasks, tracking andmanagement of multiple versions of a single content, publication ofcontent to a repository to support access to the content, textual aspectinformation of content, or the like. In an embodiment, the content maybe published to users as SMS text, premium-rated short messages (PSMS),binary, or the like. In the case of binary, the content may betransmitted as binary to take advantage of the transmission speed ofbinary and the user's mobile device may convert the binary to textualcontent.

In embodiments, content delivery 114 may be interactive, contentagnostic, rules-based, channel independent, or the like.

In an embodiment, the published content may be user interactive byallowing the user to dynamically alter the narrative of the content. Bypublishing content that may contain user inputs, the user may be able toindicate to the publishing channel what content should be deliverednext. For example, as part of sporting content, the user may respond toan input to send more game content, send only changing scores, send onlylead changes, send only the end of game scores, or the like. In thismanner, the user may be able to direct the content that is provided tothe user and therefore the user may have a unique content experience ascompared with other users. In an embodiment, the first provocationmessage to a user may be sent with user input options to allow the userto indicate the type of follow-up content desired and, therefore, theprovocation message may be used as a content starter.

In an embodiment, content may be delivered in independent communicationchannels. In an embodiment, the user may remain on a single channelduring the connection with the content publication service, may connectto one channel and move to other channels during the connection, or thelike. For example, the user may connect to a sports channel to getinformation about a game and may receive a user option to read a sportsrestaurant review. By selecting to receive the restaurant reviewcontent, the user may be connected to a different channel that containsthe restaurant review.

As described herein, published content may be larger than can bedisplayed on one screen of the user's mobile device. The larger contentmay be linked over more than one display screen using footers and userinput options. After reading the first page of content, the user mayselect to read more related content, stop reading content, read relatedcontent, or the like. For example, the published content may comprisefive mobile device display pages and may be linked together as a footeracross the five pages, allowing the user to page through the content.

In an embodiment, the content may be published in a plurality ofchannels. Each channel may be for a particular type of content, aparticular content provider, for particular advertisements, forparticular promotions, or the like. For example, there may be a channelfor editorials, sports, news, weather, local information, or the like.When the content is published, the content may be transmitted to theuser in a number of different content pages. Content may delivered usinga structured, narrative, and/or multi-message approach. The approach maybe embodied in a message flow template. For example, the content mayhave an initial provocation page where a brief amount of information issent to the user, allowing the user to determine if more informationshould be sent. The provocation page may contain user inputs to allowthe user to indicate if additional information should be sent. Theadditional information may be a description, information, a review, anintroduction, content body, conclusions, or the like.

Referring now to FIG. 5, in an example of an editorial channel, the usermay be sent a provocation page to allow the user to indicate ifadditional information is desired. The provocation page may be followedup with an introduction page for the editorial content, the editorialcontent, an opportunity for the user to provide feedback, or the like.In an embodiment, the editorial content may be displayed over severalmobile device pages. On any of the presented content pages, the user maybe able to choose to accept additional content pages, stop receivingcontent pages, provide comments back to the editorial, or the like. Thecomments back to the editorial may be in the form of free form content,selecting from provided options, or the like. Additionally, the user maybe presented with survey information and the user may select answers tothe survey questions using content provided options. Editorial channel502 message flow templates may include reviews 504, events 508,interviews 510, about 512, top picks 514, and the like. For example, areview 504 message flow may comprise delivery of a message comprising aprovocation, then a description, then picks or information. For example,an event 508 message flow may comprise delivery of a message comprisinga provocation, then a description, then information, then what's nearby,then review 1 or review 2. For example, an interview 510 message flowmay comprise delivery of a message comprising a provocation, then anintroduction, then a body, then the conclusion, and review 3. Forexample, an about 512 message flow may comprise delivery of a messagecomprising a provocation, then a personal picks1, then a personalpicks2, then hang outs, and contact information. For example, a toppicks 514 message flow may comprise delivery of a message comprising atop picks message, then event1 or event2 or review4, then if event 1 waschosen, description1 may be delivered, then information1. If event2 waschosen initially, then description2 may be delivered followed byinformation2. If review4 was chosen initially, then description4 may bedelivered followed by information4.

Those of skill in the art of computer science will appreciate that themessage flow templates may be described in terms of a state machine inwhich the states of the machine are associated with messages and inwhich the transitions between states are associated with inputs. Suchstate machines may comprise a start state and at least one end state. Inembodiments, the start state may be associated with a provocationmessage. In embodiments, the finite state machine may be deterministicor non-deterministic. For example and without limitation, restating anexample provided hereinabove in terms of the finite state machine, a toppicks message flow may comprise a start state; a transition from thestart state to an event1 state; a transition from the start state to anevent2 state; a transition from the start state to a review4 state; anda transition from each of the event1, event2, and review 4 states todescription1, description2, and description4 states respectively; and soon. The start state may be associated with a top-picks message, theevent1 state may be associated with an event1 message, the event2 statemay be associated with an event2 message, the review4 message may beassociated with a review4 message, the description1 state may beassociated with a description1 message, the description2 state may beassociated with a description2 message, the description4 state may beassociated with a description 4 message, and so on. Thus, processing maybegin by setting a current state to the start state. The messagecorresponding to the current state (the top-picks message) may bedelivered. An input may be received and a next state may be selected byfollowing a transition that is associated with the input from thecurrent state. For the sake of this example, suppose that the next stateis event2. Next, the current state may be set to this next state. Thenprocessing may continue as above, with the message corresponding to thecurrent state (now event2) being delivered. An input may be received anda next state may be selected following a transition that is associatedwith the input from the current state. For the sake of this example,suppose that the next state is description2. Next, the current state maybe set to this next state. It will be appreciated that processing maycontinue accordingly until the current state is set to an end state. Anend state may be a state from which there is no transition out; a statefrom which there is no transition out that corresponds to an input thatis received while in that state; a state that is designated an endstate; or any state. It will be appreciated that being in a state may beequivalent to having the current state equal that state.

Another example of content publishing may be sports publishing, as inFIG. 7. The sports publishing may provide game introduction information,lead change alerts, score change alerts, end of time period alerts,standings of teams within a sport organization, team roster information,game time reminders, or the like. The published sport content mayprovide the user with user inputs to allow the user to determine thenext displayed content. In an embodiment, depending on the input optionsprovided, the user may be able to jump to any of the content pages. Anexample of a sport publication may be the user receiving a gameintroduction; the user may be able to indicate if more game informationshould be provided such as game preview information, running commentaryduring the game, editorial comments about the sports team, or the like.The user may be able to select options that indicate that the user onlywants score change alerts, lead change alerts, final game summary, endof quarter message, end of game message, a league summary, a standingsmessage, a game reminder message, or the like. The user may be able toview the current roster of the team, game players that may be injured,fantasy sport information, or the like by selecting these content pagesfrom the user input options.

Another example of content publishing may be information publishing suchas weather information, as in FIG. 8. The user may receive or requestweather information; the user may be sent default information such ascurrent conditions, the weekend weather, the five day forecast, theboating forecast, severe weather forecast, or the like. Similar to theother described published content; the user may be presented with userinputs allowing the user to select the type and frequency of informationto receive. With the structured narrative approach, content may comprisea response element as pushed messages are designed to beginconversations and extend in directions that the user specifies. Forexample, referring now to FIG. 8, a weather forecast may be delivereddaily 812. The weather forecast may include a sentence requesting aresponse, such as “Reply ‘C’ for current conditions”. If the userreplies with ‘C’, a message with current conditions may be delivered tothe user. If no reply is sent, no further messages may be delivered.

Another example of content publishing may be a local, specializedchannel or advertisement, such as a Boston Fashion message flow 602.Referring to FIG. 6, a provocation message 604 may be sent announcing anevent. An SMS reply may be requested to receive more information. If auser replies affirmatively, a description message 608 may be sent. Anaffirmative reply to an SMS request therein may elicit another message,such as an information message 610. An affirmative reply to an SMSrequest therein may elicit another message, such as a review 612. Theremay be more than one SMS option, such as that depicted in the review612. An affirmative reply to an SMS request therein may elicit one ofthe offered messages, such as information 614 or picks 618.

Someone knowledgeable in the art may understand that there may be manydifferent content types that may be published to a user using manydifferent paging systems. For example and without limitation, contentdelivery 114 may be facilitated by platforms such as SMS, WAP, MMS, IVR,SMTP, GSM, GPRS, and the like.

The content management platform may also include an affiliate programwhere content providers are provided with revenue to produce content.The user may be provided revenue by the type of content, the amount ofcontent (e.g. page or word count), as a fixed amount, or the like.Additionally, content providers may receive revenue based on newsubscribers signing up for content publishing. Upon signup, the newsubscriber may be tracked to a particular channel, a particular contentprovider, or the like and increased revenue may be provided to thecontent provider when new subscribers are associated with the contentprovider's channel.

In an embodiment, the content management platform may store userprofiles; the user profile may provide information on the type ofcontent desired, the presentation of the content, the timing of thecontent, or the like. The transmission of the content to the user may beinfluenced by the user profile information. In an embodiment, the userprofile information may be stored in a database, a table, a file, aspreadsheet, or the like and may include display size information,content type desired, times to send content, or the like. In anembodiment, before transmitting content to the user, the stored userprofile may be verified for any user specific display information andthe published content may be transmitted as to match the user's displaycharacteristics.

User ranking of content may also influence publishing of content. In anembodiment, when content is published to a user, the user may also besent input options to rank the content. The received user rankings ofthe content may be stored in a database, table, file, spreadsheet, orthe like to allow for aggregating of the ranking information for thedifferent content channels, individual contents, or the like. Theranking the content may receive from the users may influence the futurecontent, future transmission of the content, the format of the content,the revenue provided to the content provider, or the like.

Specialized content may also be created for content delivery 114. Forexample, content may be of a staple class such as content related toweather, traffic, news, stocks, travel, and the like. Content may besports-related, such as content related to baseball, football,basketball, soccer, the Olympics, extreme sports, fantasy sports, andthe like. Content may be entertainment-related, such as content relatedto live music, theater events, concerts, festivals, opera, ballet, andthe like. Content may be related to social networking, such as contentrelated to age-based networking, interest-based networking,location-based networking, and the like. Content may be related tolifestyles, such as content related to early adopters, nightlife,beauty, fashion, parenting, green living, campus, hip-hop, rock music,affluent, religious, alternative, military, yuppie, athletic,health-conscious, vegan, and the like. Content may be related toculture, such as content related to the Arts, cuisine, language,religion, pop culture, organizational culture, and the like. Content maybe related to sub-genres, such as Boston independent music, New YorkCity fashion, Dallas, Tex. sports, and the like.

Specialized content may comprise reviews, event listings, interviews,Neighborhood Spotlights, About the Author, Quizzes, Dos/Don'ts, fashiontrends, blogs, editorials, publications, and the like. Content may beguided narratives. Content may comprise contextually relevant trivia 132tied to content. Trivia 132 may be a shared service among many channels.

Content transformation 108 may provide for transforming availableinformation into a textual format for delivery to a mobile device. Theavailable information may be provided at a national level, at a locallevel, at an individual content provider level, by an author, or thelike. In an embodiment, the available information may be in a formatother than the final text format and may be transformed into the textualformat by the information provider or an author, transformed based on adata feed from the information provider, transformed by the individualcontent provider, transformed based on an information database, or thelike.

In an embodiment, the national level information may be informationavailable from a national information source from a website, an RSSfeed, a blog, a database, an XML feed, or the like. The information maybe news such as from a news organization, a weather organization, asports organization, a statistics organization, or the like.Additionally, the information may be fashion information, personalinformation, business information, stock information, event information,or the like. For example, a national news organization may provide anRSS feed containing the top stories of the hour; the information contentmay be read from the RSS feed and transformed into an SMS message thatmay be transmitted to a user's mobile device.

In an embodiment, the local level information may be information that isrelevant to a town, region, or the like. The local level information maybe provided by local enterprises, organizations, events, individuals(e.g. local authors), or the like. In an embodiment, the local levelinformation providers may provide textual content to the contentmanagement platform 102 from distribution to the users. For example, alocal restaurant reviewer may provide a review in a text format to thecontent management platform 102 where the information may be transmittedto the user. The information may be provided as stand-alone information,provided as secondary information with primary information, may beprovided as additional information on a topic, or the like. For example,the user may receive national information on a restaurant chain and thenreceive information from one of the local restaurants from therestaurant chain. The local level information may include informationfor local events, where to get tickets, the times of the event, eventsponsors, or the like. It may be understood by one knowledgeable in theart that many different types of local information may be transmitted toa user.

In an embodiment, an individual content provider may be a locally basedindividual who provides information content to the content managementplatform 102, a publisher, a newspaper, and the like. The informationprovided by an individual may be related to the individual's hobby, asubject on which the individual is knowledgeable (e.g. politics), asubject the individual is passionate about (e.g. sports), and the like.In an example, content provided by a magazine publisher may be deliveredto a user. In embodiments, users who are also subscribers of the printpublication may also be eligible to receive additional content from thepublisher.

In an embodiment, an individual content provider may provide originalcontent such as information promoting an event, a political comment,sports information, or the like. All the information may be provided bythe individual content provider and may be fed directly to the contentmanagement platform 102 for transmission to the users.

In an embodiment, content may be community publishing. For example, achannel may be a community channel. For example, a community may use thechannel to relay messages to the community. For example, aTeam-In-Training channel may relay messages regarding sponsorshipopportunities, training run times, training run cancellations, socialgatherings of the team, and the like. In another example, a presidentialhopeful may have a channel to relay messages to supporters,constituents, volunteers, and the like.

In an embodiment, an individual content provider may receive aninformation feed and provide additional information to the informationfeed, add comments to the information feed, edit the information feed,or the like. For example, an individual content provider may receivesports information from a national or local news feed and add additionalinformation to the feed. If the sports information is about a particularplayer, the individual content provider may provide additional playerstatistics, player salary information, player contract information,editorial comments on the players' performance, or the like.

In an embodiment, an individual may receive compensation for providingoriginal content, additional information to the content, or the like.The compensation may include participation in the revenue stream of theprovided content, being provided access to events (e.g. tickets), beingprovided with merchandise, the satisfaction of providing theinformation, or the like. For example, individuals may receive a bountyper acquisition, a share of channel net revenue, and the like. Theindividual may be a full time content contributor, a part-time contentcontributor, an intern content contributor, or the like. Additionally,the individual may be involved in recruiting, training, providingoversight, or the like to other individual contributors. There may be ahierarchy of individual contributors where the individual contributorsare organized into organizational levels such as editorial staff,writing staff, content contributors, or the like. For example,individuals may be subject to a central editorial or peer-review toevaluate authored content. Individual content providers may participatein subscriber acquisition 118.

In an embodiment, content may be transformed for display on a user'smobile device that may include text compression, SMS text casecorrection, adding additional content, providing user input, providinguser output, or the like.

In an embodiment, text compression may include removal of unnecessarywords within a provided content. In providing content to the smallscreens of a mobile device, the number of characters may be important toproviding a comprehensive content within the specific mobile devicescreen size. The provided content may be reviewed and edited to providethe desired content using the correct number of characters. In anembodiment, there may be more than one version of the compressedcontent; the compressed content may be dependent on the receiving mobiledevice. For example, a PDA may be able to display more characters then acell phone and therefore the compressed content provided to the PDA maybe different than the compressed content provided the cell phone.

In an embodiment, the content transformation 108 may include formattingthe number of characters to meet the display capabilities of the user'smobile device, formatting the information by information type, or thelike. For example, if the provided information contains 256 charactersand the user's device is capable of displaying 128 characters, thecontent transformation by the content management platform 102 may breakthe information into two display pages of information. In anotherexample, the information may be categorized into information types suchas a title of a story and the story information. A first page maycontain the title of the story and may allow the user to provide anindication if the user wants to view the story; the story may beprovided on a second page. In an embodiment, the provided informationmay categorize the information into topics, content type, or the likeusing tags within an XML feed, RSS feed, data definition, or the like.

In an embodiment, the provided SMS content may be provided withcorrected text case for the text such as capitalization after a period,capitalization for recognized names, proper spacing after periods andcommas, or the like. The case correction may be an automatic function ora manual function provided by an individual. For capitalization, theremay be a database or the like of common names, names of people in thepublic view, sports names, nick names, or the like where case may becorrected. In an embodiment, if a word is recognized as needingcapitalization, the word may be automatically capitalized.

In an embodiment, as described herein, an individual may transform theprovided content before the content is transmitted to a user. Forexample, a sports feed may be modified to add the comments of a localexpert, a comedian, an interested individual, or the like. Thismodification of the content may occur in real time, near real time (e.g.time delayed) or prior to the transmission of the content. For example,content transformation 108 may comprise adding tone, bias, style, andthe like to content. For example, a baseball game summary prior tocontent transformation 108 may read, “Manny Ramirez is hitless in sevenat-bats over two games, reaching base only once after drawing a walk.”This content may be transformed 108, for example, by an individualcontent provider who may add a sarcastic tone. After contenttransformation 108, the content may now read, “If it weren't for drawinga walk, Manny wouldn't have been on base at all in the last two gamesafter going hitless in seven at-bats. However, Manny is stillcontributing of course, with his all-out hustle in the outfield.”

In an embodiment, as part of the transformed content, the user may beprovided with an opportunity to give input and output related to thecontent. For example, the user may be provided with content and the usermay be able to provide input to determine if additional informationshould be displayed. In another example, the user may be able to providefeedback information to the received content. The feedback may be in theform of free form text, selecting from a set of choices, or the like.

In an embodiment, the transformation of content to the user may includeformatting the information for the user's mobile device such as displaysize, aspect ratios, or the like. The formatting information may bestored for each user, may be part of a user profile, or the like. In anembodiment, the user may specify the formatting requirements byindication of the mobile device type during a setup procedure. Thestorage of the formatting information may be in a database, a table, aspreadsheet, a file, or the like. In another embodiment, the formattinginformation may be determined as part of the transmitting sequence tothe user mobile device. There may be a discovery sequence thatdetermines the user's mobile device capabilities and then transmits theproperly formatted content.

In an embodiment, to receive content from certain content providers, theuser may need to install a plug-in application in the user's mobiledevice. The plug-in may provide transformation of content provided bycertain content providers into a format viewable on the user's mobiledevice. In an embodiment, the plug-in may be applied to any of theconnectivity types (e.g. SMS, WAP). For example, an NBA provided contentmay be in a format that is unique to the information the NBA isproviding. The plug-in may transform the NBA XML provided content into achannel format that may be displayed on the user's mobile device.Additionally, there may be a dictionary associated with the plug-inapplication that may contain common words used, names of players,interpretation of statistics, or the like. The dictionary may allow thecontent to be properly case corrected before being published to theuser.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 1, a subscriber acquisition platform 118 maycomprise subscriber management 120, a dynamic acquisition platform 122,analytics 124, and the like. A dynamic acquisition platform 122 mayallow subscriptions, payment, setting preferences, and the like from aweb page, a mobile device, a phone, a pager, and the like.

In an embodiment, acquisition of users to the content publicationservice may include dynamically presented advertisement, sending a textmessage subscription request, or the like. Dynamic advertising mayinclude providing landing advertisement pages as a result of a keywordsearch, a paid advertisement placement on a website, an SMS message tothe user, an affiliate advertisement, or the like. Referring now to FIG.3, an online acquisition process 302 may comprise a web search 304. Forexample, a user may search for ‘Boston weather’ on a web search engine304. The search results may be displayed on a web page and may beassociated with a paid placement advertising 308. When a user may clickon the paid placement advertising 308, a dynamic landing page 310 may beactivated. The dynamic landing page 310 may allow a user to subscribe toa channel on the web page. Alternatively, an opt-in SMS 312 for achannel subscription may be sent to a user. In any event, a web passwordentry or an SMS reply 314 may confirm subscription to a channel.Confirmation 318 may be sent via an SMS message.

In an embodiment, the user may be presented with an advertisement forthe content publication service as a result of a keyword search on theInternet. For example, the user may be presented with an advertisementfor the content publication service when the user searches for mobiledevice publications. Additionally, the user may be presented withpublishing service advertisements when searching on the Internet forinformation that may be related content that is published as part of themobile device publication service. For example, the user may search forweather information and the user may receive an advertisement for themobile device weather publication service.

In a similar manner, the dynamic advertisement may be a paid placementadvertisement such as placing a mobile device content publicationwebsite advertisement as a result of the user's web search on a webbrowser search engine. Paid placement advertisement may be placed on thesearch engine results if there is a search for a subject in which thecontent publication service provides content. For example, if the usersearches for sporting news, a paid placement advertisement may bepresented to the user for the mobile device content sport news where theuser may subscribe to the content publication service.

In an embodiment, the user may receive a direct SMS message as anadvertisement when the user receives other SMS information. For example,the user may receive an SMS message from another enterprise and a mobiledevice publication service advertisement may be presented with theenterprise SMS message to direct the user to a website to subscribe tothe content publication service, to send an SMS message to subscribe tothe content publication service, or the like.

In an embodiment, there may be a mobile device plug-in for dynamicmobile device advertising. The advertising plug-in may providetransformation of advertisement content received from the channels to beformatted to the connection type with which the user has connected tothe channel. For example, if the user is accessing the channel usingWAP, the advertisement may be formatted to be displayed on the WAPinterface. In an embodiment, the transformation may include colorpalette, fonts, placement, images, audio, video, or the like. In anembodiment, during communication on a channel, the user may receive aplurality of different advertisements that may be dynamically displayedto the user. In another example, if the user is connected with SMS, anyaudio, image, video, or the like may be stripped from the content beforethe advertisement content is published, may be stripped at the user'smobile device by the plug-in, or the like.

In an embodiment, the content publication service may use online andoffline marketing techniques to promote the content service. As part ofonline marketing, the content service may provide advertisement onsearch engine result pages. The advertisement may be a paidadvertisement on the search return page, may be a paid search return, apaid advertisement on a webpage, or the like. In a similar manner, themarketing may include providing paid advertisement on a mobile deviceWAP browser as part of a user keyword search or web browsing.

In an embodiment, the content publication service may form a partnershipwith an enterprise to maximize the return of advertisement cost. In oneexample, a partner may provide advertisement space while the partner mayreceive advertisement as part of the content service published content.

In an embodiment, the content publication service may use an affiliateto provide visibility of the content publication service channels. Forexample, a content contributor may have a store front where the contentcontributor may advertise the channel content for the content service.The displayed information may include a list of codes that may be textedto subscribe to the content service, to receive certain channels, or thelike. In an embodiment, the content contributor may have certain textcodes that may provide tracking from which content contributor the newsubscriber received information.

In an embodiment, the user may be able to send an SMS text message tosubscribe to the content publication service. The user may receive anSMS message from a short message peer-to-peer (SMPP) protocol messageinviting the user to subscribe to the content publication service. Afterreceiving the SMPP message, the user may be able to send a return SMSmessage to subscribe to the content publication service.

In an embodiment, the content publication service may advertise forusers using mobile pay-for-performance where advertisements are paid ata rate in which they attract users to subscribe to the contentpublication service. Additionally, the content publication service mayuse hybrid analytics to allow placement of advertisement in locationsthat match user website visitations with user profiles to provide moredirected advertisements.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 1, applications 128 may comprise trivia 132,rewards 134, a social connection 138, and the like. In an embodiment,users that receive published content over one of the content providingchannels may also communicate with other users on a social interestchannel. Social interest channels may include sports, hobbies, interest,food, cars, or the like. In an embodiment, users may join a socialinterest channel, may qualify for the social interest channel, may beinvited to the social interest channel, or the like. The social interestchannel may provide a format where users may post content on the channelthat may be of interest to the other users accessing the social interestchannel. The format may be a chat room, a place to post content aboutthe social interest, or the like. The user may be able to post content,provide answers to a posted content, select different content to read,or the like. An example of qualifying for a social content channel maybe a sports fan with a high score on a sports trivia questionnaire. Forexample, users indicating an interest in the Boston Red Sox who may alsohave scored high in trivia 132 may become aware of a potential socialconnection 138. Making the social connection 138 may be an automatic ora manual process. Rewards 134 may be associated with a social connection138.

In an embodiment, there may be a trivia application that may presenttrivia questions to users. The trivia may be presented as a set ofquestions, single questions at the end of a published content, byrequest from a user, or the like. In an embodiment, the trivia may berelated to the user's received published content, of a general nature,related to the content published on a channel, or the like and may beused as the basis of a rewards system, just for fun, or the like. Theuser may request to be part of a trivia application, may receive triviaautomatically with content, may request to be omitted from trivia, orthe like. The trivia may be related to the published content such aspublished content just received by the user. For example, contentrelated to a baseball game may prompt a trivia question related to aplayer's statistics, won/lost records of pitchers, or the like.

In an embodiment, there may be a rewards 134 application that tracks theusers participation on content channels and provides rewards based oncertain metrics. For example, after responding to a certain number ofrestaurant reviews, a user may receive a reward of a discount meal atone of the reviewed restaurants. In the same manner, rewards may be fortickets, merchandise, discounted subscriptions, or the like. Rewards 134may be accumulated, transferred, deferred, accessed, converted, sold,bought, and the like.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 1, subscription management 140 may comprisebilling 142, command disambiguation 144, content targeting 148, search150, mobile connectivity 152, ad integration 154, analytics 158,server-side session management 160, profile creation and management 162,and the like.

In an embodiment, as part of a subscription management system, contentmay be targeted to a user based on the received content, a user profile,user response to content, user location, or the like. The subscriptionmanagement system may target information to the user to maximize theuser's response to the published content, to an advertisement, or thelike. The targeted information may be presented in the footer of thepublished content, the footer being the space remaining after the bodyof the published content. In an embodiment, the footer may includeadvertisement, user input request, opinion surveys, or the like. Forexample, the user may request and receive published content on severeweather in the area and may be presented with a request to check forevent cancellations as part of the footer. In another example, if theuser may request weather information, the user may be presented withvacation information, gardening information, clothing advertisements,beach reports, sport reports, UV reports, or the like.

In an embodiment, the footer information may be based on the number ofcharacters remaining to be displayed. For example, if there are fifteencharacters left for the footer after the published content is received,the user may be presented with the most appropriate information thatwill fit within the fifteen characters. The footer may be a sport scorewith the name of the enterprise providing the score, the current weatherwith the service providing the weather, or the like. Additionally, thefooter may be an option for the user to request more information. Theadditional information may be related to the received published content,an advertisement, or the like.

In an embodiment, the footer information may also be related to theuser's profile, the user's location, or the like. For example, theuser's profile may contain information on the user's interest and theinterest may be used to target information to the user such as sportsinformation, concert information, shopping information, or the like.

In an embodiment, the footer information may be related to the locationof the use. For example, the user may be in downtown Boston, and theuser may receive advertisements for stores within the downtown area. Inan embodiment, the users profile and location information may becombined to provide targeted footer information to the user.

In addition to footer information related to the content of thepublished content, the user may be presented with periodic footerinformation from a paid advertiser. An advertiser may select to transmitmessages to all users, selected users, selected users based on a userprofile, or the like on a periodic basis. For example, an advertiser mayselect to send a message to all users once a day during a certainseason.

In an embodiment, the subscription management system may manage therevenue stream for the content publication service by managing andtracking user subscriptions, managing advertisers, managingpartnerships, tracking analytics, managing loyalty programs, or thelike.

In an embodiment, the subscription management system may manage usersubscriptions by sending reminders for subscription payments, trackingpayments, tracking due dates for payments, or the like. In anembodiment, the information sent to a user may be a stand-alone message,part of the footer, or the like. The user may be able to respond to thesubscription request to indicate a continuation or cancellation of asubscription. Billing 142 may comprise charging users a fee for accessto content. The fee may be a per-use fee, a recurring subscription feefor a single channel, a recurring subscription fee for a subset or genreof channels, and the like. Recurring fees may be daily, weekly, monthly,yearly, and the like.

In an embodiment, the subscription management system may track loyaltyprograms for certain mobile devices, for certain mobile deviceproviders, or the like. For example, a loyalty program may be providedfor a certain provider for a certain length of time and the subscriptionmanagement system may track the number of users to subscribe to thecontent publication service from the loyalty program.

In an embodiment, the subscription management system may track a lacarte access of users to the content publication service. Some users maysubscribe by the day, pay per use of certain information channels, orthe like. In an embodiment, the subscription management system mayprovide subscription information to the a la carte users as at a setperiod. The user may be able to pay for the a la carte subscription atthe time the service is requested, at the end of a certain period, orthe like.

In an embodiment, the subscription management system may track theadvertisement revenue stream by tracking what advertisements were sentto users and at what advertisement rate. As advertisement may be sent tothe user as stand-alone content, as the footer, or the like thesubscription management system may track the value of the advertisement.In an embodiment, the advertising cost may be based on the number ofcharacters transmitted, by the number of pages transmitted, if theadvertisement was the main content, if the advertisement was a footer,or the like. In an embodiment, the subscription management system may beable to aggregate reports on the value of the advertisement for eachadvertising enterprise, for all advertising enterprises, for a type ofadvertisement, or the like.

In an embodiment, the subscription management system, may track thepartnership revenue stream by tracking advertisements by partners,advertisements for partners, or the like. Billing 142 may comprisecharging advertisers a fee for access to the mobile advertisingplatform. Whenever a user may view or hear, or otherwise have an“impression” of, the advertisement, a fee may be assessed.

In an embodiment, the subscription management system may provideanalytics across more than one media (e.g. SMS and website), by keywordrequest, by subscription type, by traffic routing, or the like. Usersmay subscribe or be directed to the content publication service bystarting at a website and transition to receiving information on amobile device. The subscription management system may be able to provideanalytic information for the website visit and published contentreceived by the user to provide information of the effectiveness of thesubscription method for attracting users.

In another example of analytic information, the subscription managementsystem may provide keyword information related to particularadvertisement campaigns, promotions, provided content, or the like. Thesubscription management system may be able to aggregate the user requestfor information by keyword, by keyword associated to a particular typeof content, by keyword related to a certain type of advertisement, bykeyword related to a certain advertisement, or the like. For example, toparticipate in promotions utilizing a mobile device, a user may send anSMS with keywords to an SMS address. For example, a user may text theterm ‘BOS’ to 80108, thus alerting the system that the user isparticipating in the BOS campaign, which may be related to musicpromotions in the Boston area.

Additionally, the subscription management system may be able to trackrouting information of content to a user. In an embodiment, thesubscription management system may aggregate historical routinginformation for certain periods of the day, provide real time routinginformation, provide information regarding routing rates by mobiledevice provider, provide information regarding routing rates by user, orthe like. In an embodiment, the routing information may be used to makelong term adjustments to the publishing of content to the user or realtime adjustments in the routing.

In an embodiment, a user may be able to subscribe to the content serviceby texting a code. In texting the code to the content service, a basicprofile may be established and the user may be able to connect topublished content on any of the provided channels. As described herein,as a new user connects to content, connects to channels, goes tolocations, or the like, a user profile may be populated or modified tofit the user's content preferences.

In an embodiment, a user may be able to connect to a channel by textinga code to the content publication service. The texting of certain codesmay provide connection to certain content channels.

In an embodiment, there may be more than one method of interpretingcommands from the user such as natural language commands, a structuredcommand language, interpretation of a partial word as a command, or thelike. Command disambiguation 144 may be associated with inference anddisambiguation of commands. Inference and command disambiguation may beautomatic or manual. After being provided with information content, theuser may be able to provide return commands to indicate further actionto be taken. For example, after receiving the first page of the content,the user may be able to provide input to indicate if additionalinformation should be transmitted to the user. In an embodiment, theuser commands may be in response to the provided content or any providedadditional information such as an advertisement. However, if two or moremessages are sent to which a user may be responding to and both messagesindicate that the same character should be used to respond to a message,such as ‘D’ for Details, it may be unclear which of the two messages theuser actually responded to when a ‘D’ may be received by the commanddisambiguation 144.

Command disambiguation may involve a first in, last out approach. In anembodiment, a user may be sent more than one message in which a requestfor reply, an option to link to content, or the like are included inboth messages. When a reply is returned where it may be ambiguous as towhich message the user intended to reply to, the command disambiguation144 may associate the reply with the last message sent. Commanddisambiguation may involve a first in, first out approach. In anembodiment, a user may be sent more than one message in which a requestfor reply, an option to link to content, or the like are included inboth messages. When a reply is returned where it may be ambiguous as towhich message the user intended to reply to, the command disambiguation144 may associate the reply with the first message sent.

Command disambiguation may involve associating a command alias with acommand. Command disambiguation may involve the command disambiguation144 creating command aliases for each user. In an embodiment, numbers,such as numbers from 1 through 99, 11 through 99, or the like may beused as the command aliases when a request may be sent and/or actedupon. The associated command alias may increment for each request forreply. For example, a user may be sent a message wherein a request for areply, an option to link to content, or the like are included in themessage. A unique alias which may increment numerically for eachpossible reply may be associated with that reply. In an embodiment, thenumber ‘1’ may be assigned to a request for one item of content, thenumber ‘2’ may be assigned to a request for a different item of content,the number ‘3’ may be assigned to a request for all content available,the number ‘4’ may be assigned to a link to a third party website, thenumber ‘5’ may be assigned to an indication that no further messagesshould be sent, and the like. In this example, the user may select anumber from 1 through 5 to indicate their reply. Alternatively, no replymay be sent in response to a request. When a subsequent message may besent to the same user wherein there may be a request for a reply, anoption to link to content, or the like are included in the message, aunique alias for each possible reply may be associated with that reply.The command disambiguation 144 may assign the next possible commandalias to a possible reply. Continuing with this example, the number ‘6’may be assigned to a request for one item of content, the number ‘7’ maybe assigned to a request for a different item of content, the number ‘8’may be assigned to a request for all content available, the number ‘9’may be assigned to a link to a third party website, the number ‘10’ maybe assigned to an indication that no further messages should be sent,and the like. In this example, the user may select a number from 6through 10 to indicate their reply. Alternatively, no reply may be sentin response to a request.

In an embodiment, the set of command aliases may be defined for anindividual user or for a set of users with similar subscriptionprofiles. In an embodiment, the set of command aliases may be definedfor each channel. In an embodiment, the set of command aliases may bedefined for each channel to which a user may subscribe. For example, thecommand disambiguation 144 may allocate numbers 1 through 99 for eachuser as the set of command aliases. In an embodiment, the command aliaslink to a possible reply may be persistent. The persistent link mayexpire after a defined period of time, such as for one week, two weeks,or the like. The persistent link may expire after the allocated set ofcommand aliases has been exhausted, such as when all numbers from 1through 99 have been used and the assigning of command aliases may beginagain with 1. For example, if the reply is “11” from a particularindividual, the command associated with that reply may be different forother users, may be different for the same user if sent at another time,such as for example, when the persistent link expires, or the like.

In an embodiment, the command alias may be letters. The command aliasmay increment alphabetically for each possible reply. For example, thecommand alias may increment from A through Z. In an embodiment, afterreaching the end of the alphabet, the command disambiguation 144 maycontinue to increment the command alias using multiples of each letter,such as AA, BB, and so on. In an embodiment, the command alias link to apossible reply may be persistent. The persistent link may expire after adefined period of time, such as after one week, two weeks, or the like.The persistent link may expire after the allocated set of commandaliases has been exhausted, such as when all letters from A through Zhave been used and the assigning of command aliases may begin again withA.

In an embodiment, the command alias may be short words or codes. Thewords may be arbitrary. The command alias may be a new, arbitrary wordfor each possible reply. In an embodiment, the command alias link to apossible reply may be persistent. The persistent link may expire after adefined period of time, such as after one week, two weeks, or the like.The persistent link may expire after the allocated set of commandaliases has been exhausted, such as when all arbitrary short words havebeen used and the assigning of command aliases may begin again with afirst arbitrary short word.

In an embodiment, the command alias may be a combination of letters andnumbers. For example, multiple messages may have requests for replieswhere the reply would be ‘D’ for details. To uniquely identify thecommand as being associated with a particular message, a number may beadded to the ‘D’. For example, instead of the request for reply reading‘Reply D for Details’, it may altered to read ‘Reply D3 for Details’.The numbers added to the request for reply may increment, such as forexample from 1 through 99, 1 through 999, or the like. In an embodiment,the command alias link to a possible reply may be persistent. Thepersistent link may expire after a defined period of time, such as afterone week, two weeks, or the like. The persistent link may expire afterthe allocated set of command aliases has been exhausted, such as whenall numbers in a command alias set have been used to alter the requestfor reply.

In an embodiment, command disambiguation may enable navigation tocontent in an unstructured fashion. For example, instead of receivingcontent according to a message flow template, such as the editorialchannel 502 message flow, review 504 message flow, event 508 messageflow, interview 510 message flow, about 512 message flow, and top picks514 message flow described herein, content may be requested and/orreceived in any order, at any time, and from any channel. Content may beassociated with a unique command alias such that a request for contentmay be done without regard to the channel the user may currently bereceiving messages from, a message the user may have received, when amessage may have been received by a user, and the like. For example, auser may receive a message with a reply for request reading ‘Reply 2 forthe Red Sox box score’. Having previously requested the box score inreply to another message, the user may know that the subsequent contentoffered may be the current league standings. Thus, the user may preempthaving to receive the Red Sox box score in order to get a request forreply related to the league standings and instead may reply with thenumber ‘3’ knowing that the next piece of content may be associated witha command alias incremented by 1.

Referring to FIG. 9, depicted is an example of a message flow wherecommand disambiguation is demonstrated. A provocation message 902 may besent to a user with a message header, the message, and requests forreply reading, “Reply 17 for closer Hansack” and “Reply 18 for Dice K'sschd”. The command disambiguation 144 may continue numbering thepossible replies with the next available command aliases. If the number17 is sent as the reply to the provocation message 902, the user may besent a message 904 with a message header, the message, and a request fora reply reading, “Reply 19 for scoop”. If the number 19 is sent as thereply, a message 908 may be sent to a user with a message header and themessage. There may be no additional requests for reply. If the number 18is sent as the reply to the provocation message 902, the user may besent a message 910 with a message header, the message, and a request fora reply reading, “Reply 20 for scoop”. If the number 20 is sent as thereply, a message 912 may be sent to a user with a message header and themessage. There may be no additional requests for reply.

Referring to FIG. 10, depicted is an example of a message flow wherecommand disambiguation is demonstrated. A provocation message 1002 maybe sent to a user with a message header, the message, and requests forreply reading, “Reply 17 for closer Hansack” and “Reply 18 for Dice K'sschd”. If the number 17 is sent as the reply to the provocation message902, the user may be sent multiple messages 1004 and 1008 relating tocloser Hansack. For example, a single command, such as 17 in thisexample, may indicate that all possible messages should be sent to theuser. Each message may have a message header and the message, but noadditional requests for a reply. If the number 18 is sent as the replyto the provocation message 902, the user may be sent multiple messages1010 and 1012 relating to Dice K's schedule. Each message may have amessage header and the message, but no additional requests for a reply.

Referring to FIG. 11, a message flow for user acquisition may involvecommand disambiguation. For example, a provocation message 1102 may besent with a request for reply reading ‘Reply 1 for the list of cities wecover’. After a user may reply with ‘1’, they may receive a message witha numbered list of cities 1104. The command disambiguation 144 maycontinue numbering the possible replies with the next available commandaliases. The user may reply with the number which indicates the citythey are closest to, such as ‘2’ for Boston, or they may reply with anumber which indicates that no city on the list is close and thatadditional cities should be displayed for selection. Once a user mayselect a city, they may be prompted via a subsequent message to selectan interest 1108. For example, they may be presented a request for replyreading ‘Reply w/num to indicate what you're into”. This may be followedwith a list of interests associated with a number, such as 8 for music,10 for sports, 14 to indicate a desire to see additional interestcategories, and the like. After a user may indicate an interest byreplying with the number associated with that interest, the user may beprompted to subscribe to a specific channel within that interestcategory via a subsequent channel subscription message 1110. Forexample, a user may be presented with a list of possible channelsassociated with a number, such as ‘15’ for Indie Rock, ‘17’ for Hip Hop,‘22’ for more channels, and the like, and may be asked to “Reply w/numto subscribe”. Upon replying with a number to subscribe to a channel, auser may be sent a subscription pitch or conformation message 1112. Thesubscription pitch or confirmation message 1112 may comprise a requestfor reply to confirm the subscription, information regarding billing,information regarding the duration of a free trial, informationregarding the host of the channels, and the like.

Referring to FIG. 12, a process for user subscription may involvecommand disambiguation. In an embodiment, a mobile originating messagethat may contain information regarding a market, category, or interestmay initiate a subscription request. Starting at logical block 1202, amobile originated command may be sent from a handset. The mobileoriginated command may contain information regarding a market, category,or interest. Processing flow may continue to logical block 1204, wherein response to the mobile originated command, the user may be sent acompany pitch. The company pitch may describe what subscriptions areavailable, what information may be available, what opportunities may beavailable, and the like. Processing flow may continue to logical block1208 where a market selection message may be sent to the handset. Themarkets in the market selection message may be pruned down to the 5closest markets based on an area code. Processing flow may continue tological block 1210 where a test may determine whether the market hasmore than 5 interests. If the outcome of the test is positive,processing flow may continue to logical block 1212 where a user may besent a category selection, as described herein. Processing flow may thencontinue to logical block 1214 where the user may be sent an interestselection, as described herein. If the outcome of the test at logicalblock 1210 is negative, then processing flow may continue directly tological block 1214 where the user may be sent an interest selection, asdescribed herein. After an interest may be selected at logical block1214, processing flow may continue to logical block 1218 where asubscription pitch may sent to the handset, as described herein, andprocessing flow may terminate.

Referring to FIG. 13, three message flows for mobile originated useracquisition may involve command disambiguation. In the first messageflow, the subscriber may begin the mobile originated subscriptionprocess by supplying a market selection, such as by indicating what citythey live in. Then, an interest indication message 1302 may be sent to auser with a request for reply reading “Reply w/num to indicate whatyou're into”. This may be followed with a list of interests associatedwith a number, such as 3 for music, 6 for Health, and the like. After auser may indicate an interest by replying with the number associatedwith that interest, the user may be prompted to subscribe to a specificchannel within that interest category via a subsequent channelsubscription message 1304. The command disambiguation 144 may continuenumbering the possible replies with the next available command aliases.For example, a user may be presented with a list of possible channelsassociated with a number, such as ‘10’ for Indie Rock, ‘12’ for Hip Hop,‘17’ for more channels, and the like, and may be asked to “Reply w/numto subscribe”. Upon replying with a number to subscribe to a channel, auser may be sent a subscription pitch or conformation message 1308. Thesubscription pitch or confirmation message 1308 may comprise a requestfor reply to confirm the subscription, information regarding billing,information regarding the duration of a free trial, informationregarding the host of the channels, and the like. In the second messageflow, a subscriber may begin the mobile originated subscription processby supplying a category selection, such as music, sports, and the like.The command disambiguation 144 may number the possible replies with thenext available command aliases. The user may be presented with a list ofcities and the user may select the city that they are closest to bereplying with the number associated with the city they are closest to,such as ‘21’ for San Francisco, or they may reply with a number whichindicates that no city on the list is close and that additional citiesshould be displayed for selection. Once a user may select a city, theymay be sent a subscription pitch or conformation message 1312. Thesubscription pitch or confirmation message 1312 may comprise a requestfor reply to confirm the subscription, information regarding billing,information regarding the duration of a free trial, informationregarding the host of the channels, and the like. Channel selection maybe obviated because there may be only a single channel corresponding toa particular category and market. In a third message flow, the user maybegin the mobile originated subscription process by supplying a channelselection, such as Kid Stuff, Local Sports, and the like. The commanddisambiguation 144 may number the possible replies with the nextavailable command aliases. The user may be presented with a list ofcities and the user may select the city that they are closest to bereplying with the number associated with the city they are closest to,such as ‘8’ for San Francisco, or they may reply with a number whichindicates that no city on the list is close and that additional citiesshould be displayed for selection. Once a user may select a city, theymay be sent a channel selection message 1318. For example, a user may bepresented with a list of possible channels associated with a number,such as ‘14’ for My Kids (North), ‘15’ for My Kids (South), and thelike, and may be asked to “Reply w/num to subscribe”. Upon replying witha number to subscribe to a channel, they may be sent a subscriptionpitch or conformation message 1320. The subscription pitch orconfirmation message 1320 may comprise a request for reply to confirmthe subscription, information regarding billing, information regardingthe duration of a free trial, information regarding the host of thechannels, and the like.

In an embodiment, user acquisition may be facilitated by current users.A user may share content with another user or potential user bytransmitting or forwarding them a message containing the content or alink to the content. The transmitted or forwarded message may beaccompanied with a message regarding subscription.

Referring to FIG. 14, a message flow for profile management may involvecommand disambiguation. Users may be able to list interests that may bepart of their subscription, remove interests from their subscription,access read-only settings, and the like. For example, a Thumbcast Listmessage 1402 may be sent to a user which may list all channels a usermay be subscribed to, such as 02130:Weather, Red Sox: MLB, and the like.Each of the channels may be associated with a command alias, such as anumber. The message 1402 may contain a request for reply that may read“Reply w/num to view delivery settings”. Upon replying with a number fora subscribed channel, a user may receive a message 1404, 1408, 1410 withdelivery settings for the subscribed channel. Delivery settings mayinclude delivery times on a weekday, delivery times on a weekend,Breaking News settings, Weather Alerts settings, Game Coverage settings,Zip Code settings, instructions for modifying settings, and the like.

In an embodiment, command disambiguation may enable a dynamic useracquisition platform. Command disambiguation may enable tracking onlineuser acquisition campaigns and measurement of conversion and adoptionthrough the Internet. A user acquisition transaction may commence on theInternet, such as when a user receives an email or accesses a landingpage advertising a channel. When the user indicates an interest in thechannel, they may be asked for their mobile phone number or other mobileidentification. When the mobile phone number is captured, a cookie maybe set on the machine linking the mobile phone number and a uniquecommand alias. A sign-up message may be generated and sent to the mobilephone number indicating that the user should text back the uniquecommand alias if they would like to sign-up for channel contentdelivery. The link between the mobile phone number and command alias canbe tracked to demonstrate that the conversion originated with an onlinetransaction.

In an embodiment, the user may be able to use natural language commandssuch as “Y”, “N”, “yes”, “no”, “more”, “sports”, “news”, “restaurantreviews”, or the like to indicate the next content that should beprovided. Depending on the content provided to the user, the user may bepresented with a plurality of next actions such as displaying moreinformation, selecting from more than one next display content,selecting related content, selecting an advertisement content, or thelike. In an embodiment, the user's response may be interpreted as apartial natural language command. For example, as the natural languagecommand is entered, possible commands may be filled in to anticipate thefull command such as “Yes” being interpreted from “Y”. The naturallanguage command may be interpreted based on the provided content suchas interpreting “Patriots” from a user input of “Pat” when the providedcontent is related to a sports report on the New England Patriots.

In an embodiment, the commands may be structured language where the userunderstands certain commands provide a particular response. For example,the user may want transmitted content for the local weather forecast andmay enter “W” along with a zip code for the forecast or enter “C” alongwith a zip code for the current conditions. In a similar manner, theuser may be able to request information related to sports, the stockmarket, news, or the like. Someone knowledgeable in the art mayunderstand that there may be many different methods of creating astructured command language to be used in requesting information in thismanner.

In an embodiment, there may be methods and systems for determining whichresponse from a user is related to which transmitted content. In anembodiment, transmitted content and user responses may be based on atransmission time frame, aliasing of commands, or the like. For example,the user response may be expected within a certain time frame of theprovided content transmission for proper matching of the response andcontent. In embodiments, there may be protocols to determine the timeframes of the responses and the determination of an action to be takenif the user response is not received within the required time frame. Forexample, if a response is not received in the specified time, aconfirmation content text may be transmitted to the user to confirm theuser's response.

In an embodiment, response commands provided by the user may be uniqueto the content to which the user is responding and not unique to theentire command system. For example, following the provided content, theuser may be provided with response choices that may be unique to theprovided content such as “C” for continue and “S” for stop. It may beunderstood that the “C” and “S” could represent other commands when usedwith other content. In an embodiment, the content management platform102 may track the content transmitted to users and the anticipatedresponses to the content for determination of what the next transmissionto the user may be. This may eliminate the need to develop a complicatedstructured command language to provide unique responses to eachsituation. In an embodiment, this may allow content providers todetermine the user responses on the fly as the content is developed.

Content targeting 148 may comprise querying a user profile or a databaseof past interactions, subscriptions, transactions, and the like forbehavior and information that may facilitate content targeting 148. Forexample, if a user may have a high score in trivia 132 related toscience, a Discovery Channel feed may be suggested to the user. Thesuggestion may be via an SMS, phone call, voicemail, e-mail, page, andthe like.

Search 150 may be associated with subscription management 140. Searchterms may be used to facilitate content targeting 148.

In an embodiment, published content may be provided in a number ofdifferent formats that may include SMS, Microsoft media services (MMS),wireless application protocol (WAP), interactive voice response (IVR),simple network management protocol (SNMP), mobile video, two waycommunication, or the like. In an embodiment, the different mobiledevice formats may be used individually or in combination to providemobile connectivity 152.

In an embodiment, SMS may be used to send and receive text messaging,provide a menu structure for accessing the other connectivity formats,or the like. SMS may be used individually to receive text content andallow the user options of receiving more content, receivingadvertisement, or the like as described herein. SMS may also be used toselect other connectivity content such as phone calls, WAP, MMS, IVR,audio, video, or the like. For example, the user may receive textualcontent and respond with a request for more information as an audiofeed; the user may then receive audio information related to textualcontent. For example, an SMS message may be sent to user that says“Brady hit Troy Brown for 20 Yard TD”. The footer of the message maysay, “To hear live audio cast, text back ‘A’”, which may deliver an MMSmessage with audio content or, if the mobile device is a phone, a callmay be received and an IVR system may play the audio broadcast. Thefooter of the message may also say, “To see live streaming video, textback ‘V’”, which may deliver a streaming video broadcast. Mobileconnectivity 152 may be two-way, such as push and pull systems. Forexample, Google searches are generated by a user pull whereas deliveryof a Weatherbug daily forecast may be a push.

In an embodiment, the user may be able to receive published contentusing a WAP connection; the WAP connection may provide connectivity suchas a web browser. Using a WAP connection, the user may be able toreceive a combination of textual content, audio content, video content,or the like. In an embodiment, using the WAP connection, the user mayhave the same capabilities of receiving published content provided bySMS such as receiving textual content containing a provocation message,a description, additional information, footers, advertisement, inputoptions, or the like, but may also receive audio, image, video, or thelike with the textual content. In an embodiment, the additionallyreceived audio, image, video, or the like may be related to thepublished content, may be an advertisement, or the like.

In an embodiment, the user may receive published content that maycontain an option for the user to input a request for an IVR connection;the IVR connection may then play an audio related to the publishedcontent. In an embodiment, once connected to the IVR the user may have anumber of different choices of audio to receive.

In an embodiment, the mobile device connectivity service may providesupport for SNMP to provide the collection and exchange of networkconnection information between the content service and the user. Theconnection information may be used to determine routing, flag issueswith a particular connection, provide information for enhancing theconnection capabilities, or the like. In an embodiment, the user may beunaware that the network information is being collected and transmitted.

In an embodiment, mobile video may be provided with the publishedcontent as a selected option from an SMS message, as part of a WAPconnection, as part of an MMS connection or the like. If a user receivesSMS published content, the content may also contain a user option toreceive mobile video; after the user selects the option, the video maybe transmitted to the user's mobile device.

In an embodiment, the system may support multi-modal content deliveryand the integration of media platforms around a unifying event. In anembodiment, content received on one kind of media or channel may befollowed up with content on another kind of media or channel. Forexample, if David Ortiz hits a home run, a user may receive an SMS alertwith updated statistics for the slugger. The user may then click on alink, respond with a command alias, or otherwise indicate a desire toreceive additional content and be directed to a WAP page with moredetail, click on a link to receive or place a call to access audio, bedirected to an Internet page to follow a link, be directed to anotherchannel to receive additional or complementary information, and thelike. The integration of SMS, WAP, and the Internet may be integratedfor an improved mobile experience. The Internet may be good for deliverylarger format content, different configurations of content, and browsingfor content discovery, while SMS may be good for push of content withoutthe clutter associated with the Internet experience, but SMS may not begood for browsing. WAP may be better for scrolling, albeit in small formfactor. All three media types, SMS, WAP, and Internet may be integratedinto a single mobile experience. For a single event or single collectionof content, content may be distributed among multiple media types. Forexample, a user may be notified of a concert on the Esplanade via SMS.The user may then retrieve a next deeper level of information on theEsplanade concert via WAP. The user may then be directed to the Internetto purchase a ticket to the concert. In embodiments, SMS messaging maydrive return traffic to WAP. In an embodiment, messages may be pushed tousers via WAP Push, which may allow WAP content to be pushed to themobile handset with minimum user intervention. A WAP Push may be aspecially encoded message which includes a link to a WAP address. WAPPush may be specified on top of a WAP Datagram Protocol (WDP); as such,it may be delivered over any WDP-supported bearer, such as GPRS or SMS.On receiving a WAP Push, a WAP enabled handset may automatically givethe user the option to access the WAP content.

In an embodiment, content delivered to a mobile device may also beavailable for viewing on the Internet. Content may be searchable on theInternet. Content searched or accessed on the Internet may comprise asubscription interface. For example, when a user searches for localmusic information and accesses content associated with the platform,they may have the opportunity to subscribe to content delivery.Subscription may be initiated over the Internet and either may becompleted on the Internet or completed on a mobile device.

In an embodiment, the mobile connection may be made from a plurality ofcommunication channels. Each channel may provide different content forthe user to receive such as news, sports, weather, reviews, specialinterest, interviews, or the like. The channels may use a structuredtemplate approach for the design of content to provide rapid developmentof new content. Additionally, the channel template may also incorporatean application design wizard to guide content developers in theapplication of content into a channel. For example, a new contentprovider may desire to develop a new channel providing content onrestaurants; the new content provider may access the design wizard toformat the content into the published content format for the channel.The design wizard may provide templates for number of characters perpage, formatting user options, formatting user connection types,formatting message content, or the like. This method may allownon-technical content providers a simple interface to develop andpublish content to a mobile connection channel.

In embodiments, subscribers who subscribe to a plurality of channels maychoose to receive a digest of messages instead of a single message fromeach channel, such as a daily digest, a weekly digest, and the like. Forexample, if a user subscribes to multiple channels, they may receive onedigest delivered via a WAP page. The availability of the digest on theWAP page may be announced via an SMS message. For example, a usersubscribing to four channels, weather, advertising, news, sports, andfashion, may choose to receive messages from the weather channel as theyare available but choose to receive messages from the remaining threechannels as a digest. They may receive a WAP link to the digest pushedthrough SMS.

Ad integration 154 may comprise advertisements delivered as footers inSMS messages delivering content. Interactivity may be directed byfooters with content. For example, subscribers to a local New York Cityevents channel may receive an SMS message announcing a black-tie eventfor tomorrow night at the South Street Seaport. The footer of themessage may comprise a question, such as “Check for tomorrow's weatherforecast?” Footers may be assigned based on the remaining text in themessage. For example, a message capped at 160 characters with only 13left narrows the footers that may be associated to those that are only13 characters in length. Advertising may be targeted based oninteractions with footers in SMS messages. In the example above,advertisements that may be related to the content of the black-tie eventmessage may be an advertisement for a car service, a hair salon, atuxedo rental shop, and the like. In another example, a weather messagesaying, “Another day of sub-zero temperatures” may provide an adopportunity for a travel product. In any event, the footer may beselected should the user wish to receive more information regarding thecontent in the footer or the advertised goods and/or services.Advertising may be targeted based on a user profile, content, location,and the like. Content transformation 108, command disambiguation 144,footers and ad targeting may be associated to provide mobile mediaservices. Ad integration 154 may facilitate publishers and vendors toSMS directly through the system at fixed intervals. For example,publishers and vendors may send one message per week to each subscriber.Publishers and vendors may advertise to their user base based on theirdistribution efforts. Ad integration 154 may facilitate real timelookups and footers on a mobile platform with ad targeting.

Similar to content delivery being integrated across multiple mediaplatforms, so can advertisements. Advertisements associated with contentmay associated with content delivery or discovery on the Internet, a Websearch page, Internet Yellow Pages, mobile search, SMS, WAP, directoryassistance, podcasts, and the like. Advertisers may create a singleadvertisement and it may be associated and/or accessible with content onany kind of media. In other embodiments, similar to content, anadvertisement may first be seen on an SMS and then further accessed viaWAP and then finally interacted with fully, as in to make a purchase forexample, on the Internet. In an embodiment, advertisements delivered toa mobile phone may comprise a click-to-call or pay-per-call link. Forexample, content regarding a guided hike in the Blue Hills Reservationmay be associated with a Timberland advertisement for hiking boots orsimply a sponsorship notification, such as “These hikes are brought toyou by Timberland.” A user may interact with the advertisement bytexting back ‘D’ for deals to receive additional SMS' on sales fromTimberland, by clicking on a click-to-call link and getting connected tothe nearest Timberland retailer, and the like. In an embodiment, commanddisambiguation may enable tracking unique impressions made byadvertising and targeting advertisements to specific users. For example,a user viewing an advertisement on the Internet may be asked to textback a command alias, such as the number ‘25’, to a specific address inorder to view a particular advertisement. A cookie set on the user'smachine may be linked to the command alias in order to track useractivity on the web along with user activity on a mobile phone. Trackingmay be done across multiple media, such as SMS, MMS, WAP, e-mail, andthe Internet.

Referring to FIG. 15, advertising may be multi-modal. Advertisements maybe delivered to the user either as standalone content or in associationwith other content. Related or additional advertisement information maybe offered from within the advertisement or by the advertisement.Responding to the offer may include texting back a short form command,clicking on a WAP or Web link, clicking to call a phone number, and thelike. The initial advertisement may be delivered via at least one ofSMS, MMS or email and may contain a link to additional advertisementinformation on a WAP content page. The WAP advertisement may solicit anemail address for the delivery of additional advertisement informationvia email. The email advertisement may provides links to additionaladvertisement information on a Web page intended for delivery to a PC.

In an embodiment, advertisements may be contextual. For example, contentmay be tagged with keywords, location information, start date, end date,and the like. Advertising may be contextually targeted to certaincontent using keywords locations, times, and the like. In an embodiment,location information associated with content may be mapped. Locationinformation associated with an advertisement may be overlaid onto thecontent map to demonstrate a proximity.

Analytics 158 may be associated with subscription management 140. Forexample, user interaction with content and footers may be tracked on achannel-by-channel basis. Information obtained from these analytics 158may be used to refine content and ad targeting.

A server-side session management facility 160 may be used to trackinformation transmitted to and from the user, maintain a user responsetable, track resources being used, measure and aggregate analyticaltransmission information, track information transmitted to the users,manage user information sessions, or the like. In an embodiment, theremay be a plurality of information content channels from which a user mayreceive content and provide responses related to the content. For eachof the channels, a plurality of users may receive the channel contentand respond back with user commands.

In an embodiment, user commands in response to provided content may betracked by the server-side session management facility to properly matchthe user's responses to the provided content. For example, more than onecontent provided to the user may contain similar response possibilities.One or more of the provided content may have an acceptable response of“1” and the server-side session management facility may track theoutgoing content and match the user incoming responses to assure thatthe user's response is matched to the proper content. In this manner,the need to have unique commands may be eliminated. In an embodiment,there may be a table, database, file, or the like to record thetransmitted content with the user and to track the user transmittedresponses to map the user responses to the transmitted content. Usingthe response map, the proper next content may be transmitted to theuser.

In an embodiment, the server-side session management facility maymaintain flags for certain sources of content. Flags may facilitatepay-per-performance billing 142.

In an embodiment, a plurality of analytical information may be trackedfor media types, keyword uses, subscriptions, routing performance, orthe like. The analytical information may provide aggregation of resourceusage, cash flow analysis (e.g. subscriptions and advertisement),keyword mapping to certain advertisements, or the like.

In an embodiment, users may use more than one media to access content ontheir mobile device. The user may access a website to indicate a desireto receive content on the user's mobile device. The server-side sessionmanagement facility may track the user from the visit to the website toreceiving content on the user's mobile device. The server-side sessionmanagement facility may track the website access, record a subscriptionrequest, record the user subscription information, track contenttransmitted to the user, or the like. In an embodiment, this informationmay be aggregated into a plurality of reports providing information onthe user's content activities such as the type of content requested, thetype of content to which the user responded, or the like.

In an embodiment, user keyword responses may be tracked by theserver-side session management facility 160. The keyword responses maybe matched to the content that was provide to the user to track theeffectiveness of a particular promotion. For example, a restaurant maypay for an advertising campaign and it may be desired to track from whattype of content that users responded. Using the keyword responses, theranking of the provided content may be determined from which therestaurant received the most responses. The restaurant may have receivedmost of its responses from sporting content and this may allow therestaurant to further direct their future advertising.

In an embodiment, subscription information may be aggregated to trackuser subscription information to different information campaigns. Theinformation campaigns may include advertisement, promotions, or thelike. The user subscription information may be aggregated for some orall of the information campaigns to provide feedback as to theeffectiveness of the information campaign. In an embodiment, rates paidby advertisers may be related to the effectiveness of informationcampaigns.

In an embodiment, the server-side session management facility 160 maytrack mobile performance routing by recording the metrics of thetransmission of content to the user mobile device. Routing decisions maybe made on the analytic information related to route traffic and therates at which the user mobile device is receiving content. In anembodiment, the performance routing decisions may be made in real time,made by historical information, made automatically, made manually, orthe like. In an embodiment, the transmission route may be determinedbefore content is transmitted, as the content is transmitted, after thecontent is transmitted, or the like. The transmission route may bemodified during the transmission of content to a user mobile device.

In an embodiment, information related to content transmitted to a userphone number may be used to track the information transmitted, the typeof information transmitted, the user response, the time the informationwas transmitted, the time the user responded, and the like. Thisinformation may allow inferences to be made between the content that wassent to the user and the response that was returned. For example, ifinformation is tracked for the type of content transmitted to a user,partial responses by the user may be analyzed to infer the meaning ofthe response. As described herein, this may permit a user to enter apartial response such as “Pat” and the response may be understood as“Patriot” because the content transmitted to the user was related to theNew England Patriots.

In an embodiment, the server-side management facility 160 may track userinteraction information to provide for a customized user experience,measure user activity, predict user activity, or the like. The userexperience may be customized by analysis of the user's activities todetermine the type of content the user may be accessing the most. Withthis information, the user may be provided with content that may moreconsistently interest the user. The information may also be used topredict the user's future content access activity; the predictedactivity may provide information to set advertisement rates, determinewhich content to provide, determine which content to eliminate, or thelike. This information may be used to make suggestions to users. Forexample, the information may be used to suggest other venues to a useror other users with similar user profiles.

In an embodiment, the user's subscription profile may be auto-populatedby recording the channels to which the user connects, by the channels towhich other users with similar profiles connect, a user's interactionwith SMS messages, footers, dynamic landing pages 310, paid-placementadvertising 308, venues, or the like. The user may initially enterinformation into a user profile to indicate the type of interests theuser may have, these interests may be used to suggest channels that maybe of interest the user. As the user connects to different channels, thechannels visited may be recorded by a profile facility. In anembodiment, as the user connects to channels over a period of time theprofile facility may use an algorithm to determine a pattern of channelsvisited and may suggest other channels of interest to the user; thesuggested channel may be presented to the user as a user option with anyprovided content. If the user indicates that the suggested content is ofinterest, the profile facility may update the users profile to recordthe new channel interest. In this manner, as the user connects todifferent channels over time, the users profile may be updated toreflect the user's channel connections. Additionally, if the profilefacility determines that a channel has not been connected to for aperiod of time, the profile facility may send the user a message todetermine if the user desires to delete the channel(s) from the userprofile.

In an embodiment, a user's profile may be modified using informationfrom other user profiles that may be similar. In an embodiment, theprofile facility may aggregate user information for the type of channelsvisited, and make suggestions of channels to visit based on other userprofiles. It may be determined by the profile facility that the user mayhave a certain percentage of channels in common with other users and theuser may receive a message suggesting a new channel based on the otheruser's profiles. In an embodiment, if the user indicates that thesuggested channel is of interest, the channel may be added to the userprofile.

In an embodiment, a user profile may be modified by a rating a user maygive for published content, a channel, or the like. In an embodiment,when a user receives published content, the user may be provided with anopportunity to provide a rating of the published content. In anembodiment, the rating may be a thumbs up, thumbs down, a star rating, anumber rating, a letter rating, or other rating method that may providea scale of the content. A user profile may be modified based on therating a user gives the content. In an embodiment, a user may be able toview the ratings that a user has provided for the content, channel, orthe like.

In an embodiment, the rating a user provides content or a channel mayaffect real time user content. For example, if a number of users viewingcertain content give the content a very high rating, the content's highrating may be sent to other users with similar interests to indicatethat there is current content in which the user may be interested. Basedon the very high rating, a user may receive a user option to view thehighly rated content.

In an embodiment, the social networking channels to which the userconnects may modify the user profile. Depending on the social channels(e.g. trivia, sports, hobbies) for which the user receives content, theuser may receive suggestions on new channels to which to connect. If auser selects to view the suggested channel, a user profile may bemodified to reflect the selection. In an embodiment, the profilefacility may aggregate the social networking channel information foruser profiles to determine user profile modification suggestions.

In an embodiment, a user location or behavior may modify a user profile.In an embodiment, if a user location may be determined (e.g. GPS phone),the user location may be recorded and aggregated to determine suggestedchanges to a user profile. For example, if it is determined that a userfrequently visits a certain restaurant or restaurant type the profilefacility may send the user content suggesting channel content related tosimilar restaurants. If the user selects the suggested channel content,the user's profile may be modified to reflect the new selected content.Profile creation and management 162 may facilitate real time usergenerated content. For example, users may ‘thumbs up’ their currentlocation for the evening and others may see popular venues or events forthe evening based on these real time ratings.

In an embodiment, a user may be able to manage a user profile byaccessing the profile through a web-based management system, byaccessing a mobile device management system, or the like. The user maybe able to view, modify, add, delete, or the like various aspects of auser profile such as preferred channels, preferred content, and thelike.

In an embodiment, profile creation and management 162 may be associatedwith validation of user profiles. For example, a user profile may saythat the user is a friend of Michael Jordan. If Michael Jordanparticipates in the system, independent validation of the user profilemay be possible by comparing the locations of the user and MichaelJordan and tracking the number of times they have been within ten feetof each other in the last few weeks.

In an embodiment, profile creation and management 162 may be associatedwith configuring services. Referring now to FIG. 8, a web-based profilemanagement 804, may be used to set content preferences and a simpleschedule 808 for content delivery 114. A user may also be able to set adetailed delivery schedule 810.

In embodiments, a user interface to the content publication service mayinclude real time user generated content capabilities, subscriptionaddition and cancellation capabilities, profile management, toolbars,dialog boxes, menus, searching, multi-part and narrative content displaycapabilities, authoring environments, or the like.

As described herein, real time content may be provided to the user bysending user option content that may allow the user to select the nextcontent to be displayed on a user mobile device. The next displayedcontent may be related content, new content, a survey, a rating, trivia,or the like. The displayed content may be sent to the user as SMS, WAP,MMS, IVR, mobile video, or the like as individual content or as acombination of contents.

A user may be able to add, cancel, or revise subscription informationusing SMS messages, using webpage access, or the like. In an embodiment,by sending an SMS message, the user may be able to directly request asubscription or cancel a subscription to the content publicationservice. Additionally, a user may be able to send an SMS message to viewthe subscription information and make revisions such as the type ofsubscription (e.g. monthly or ad hoc payments), access, paymentschedules, or the like. In an embodiment, the user may also be able toaccess the same subscription information using a content publicationservice related website. The content publication service website mayallow the user to add a subscription, delete a subscription, revise asubscription, or the like.

A user may have access to a user profile where the preferences for usercontent may be defined. A user may be able to add, delete, modify, orthe like information that may affect the delivery of content to the usersuch as content delivery schedules, type of content, preferred channels,advertisement types, or the like. Additionally, there may be a profilefacility that may record a user's received content to determine ifchanges should be suggested to the user. As described herein, theprofile facility may record user content, answers to user input options,hobbies, similarity to other user profiles, location, or the like tomake determinations if other content or channels may be of interest to auser. If it is determined that there may be additional content that maybe of interest, the profile facility may send content to the usersuggesting a revision to the user's profile.

In an embodiment, the user interface may comprise a toolbar or menu thatmay include shortcuts to frequently used features, access to the userprofile, viewing the available channels, viewing the available content,or the like. In an embodiment, the toolbar or menu may be displayed allthe time, may be displayed upon user request, or the like. The user maybe able to place the toolbar or menu in a user preferred location on theuser interface such as at the top of the mobile device screen, at thebottom of the mobile device screen, or the like. The user may also havecontrol over the color used for the toolbar or menu, running the toolbaror menu in the background or foreground, or the like.

In an embodiment, the user interface may include a searching capabilitythat the user may use to search for content, channels, socialnetworking, or the like. In an embodiment, the search may be by keyword,natural language, short keywords, or the like. After the search, theuser may be presented with a search result that may match the searchinput; the search results may include content, channels, or the like.

In an embodiment, the user interface may provide a method and system ofdisplaying multi-part or narrative content on the users mobile devicedisplay. As described herein, published content may be greater in lengththen may be displayed on a user mobile device display. In the case wherethe content may require more than one page to display all of thepublished content, the user may be presented with input options toindicate if more content should be displayed, different content shouldbe displayed, content display should be terminated, or the like.

In an embodiment, the user interface may provide an authoringenvironment. The user may be provided an authoring environment tofacilitate content creation or modification. In an embodiment, theauthoring environment is accessible through a web-based user interface,a mobile device based user interface, or the like.

In an embodiment, the content providers may have a user interface towrite, format, add advertisement, publish, and the like to a channel. Asdescribed herein, the content providers may be provided a content wizardthat may provide a template for content development. The wizard mayprovide formatting for the content, advertising placement within thecontent, publishing to the appropriate channel, control the timing ofpublishing content, or the like. In an embodiment, the content provideruser interface may be a web-based interface, a mobile device basedinterface, or the like.

In an embodiment, there may be a user interface for advertisers fordetermining where to place advertisement within published content. Usingthe interface, the advertiser may be able to associate advertisementwith user keyword searches. For example, the advertiser may indicatethat the advertisement should be displayed when a user searches forweather information. When the user receives the weather information, theuser will also receive the associated advertisement as part of thecontent. Using the interface, the advertiser may be able to provideadvertisement content, determine advertisement content delivery options(e.g. time of day), the value to be paid for the advertisement, the typeof content to associate with the advertisement, or the like.

In an embodiment, using the advertiser interface, the advertiser mayalso be able to indicate the placement of paid placement advertisement.The advertiser may be able to indicate certain times of the day to sendadvertisement content to a user. For example, an automobileadvertisement may be published to all users during rush hour each day.Using the interface, the advertiser may be able to provide advertisementcontent, placement location, placement time, the type of user to sendthe advertisement, or the like. The advertiser may use the userinterface to receive alerts of user behavior.

In an embodiment, there may be a user interface for the host of thecontent service that may provide subscription management, contentmanagement, analytics, or the like. In an embodiment, the hostsubscription management facility may allow the host to view, modify,add, or delete subscription information for a user or a group of users.In an embodiment, the subscription management facility may provideinformation such as user subscription rates, subscriptions associated toa particular channel, subscriptions associated to a particular contentprovider, subscriptions by channel, subscriptions by content provider,user subscription rates by time period, subscriptions made by a website,subscriptions by mobile device, or the like. In an embodiment, thesubscription management facility may be a web-based interface.

In an embodiment, there may be a content management facility that mayallow the host to view and manage content as it is published, before itis published, after it is published, or the like. In an embodiment, thecontent management facility may allow the host to stop content frombeing published, delay the publishing of content, change the channelthat content on which content will be published, or the like. Thecontent management facility may provide the host with a level of controlof the content being published using the host controlled channels. In anembodiment, the content management facility may be web-based.

In an embodiment, there may be a web-based analytics facility that mayprovide the host with aggregated information such as type of contentprovided, advertisements provided, revenue stream from advertisements,revenue stream from subscriptions, content publishing routing, or thelike. The analytics may be provided to the host in real time, ashistorical information, or the like. For example, the content publishingrouting may be provided to the host in real time and the host may beable to revise publishing routes to resolve slow transmission routes.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a system for mobile media services may compriseinbound content 202, customer acquisition 218, content management 230,subscription management 240, connectivity 252, and mobile subscribers264. Inbound content 202 may be provided by content providers 204,managed content 208 developed over a CMS user interface 210, and usergenerated content 212 developed over a user generated content gateway214. Content management 230 may be facilitated by feed processing 232,content management 234, and content transformation 238. Customeracquisition may be online 220 through a dynamic advertising platform 222or via a mobile 224 process, such as an SMPP gateway 228. Subscriptionmanagement 240 may comprise subscriber management 242, content targeting244, ad integration 248, and billing 250. Content management 230 isassociated with subscription management 240. Subscription management 240is associated with mobile connectivity 252. Connectivity 252 comprisescommand interpreter 254, SMS/MMS 258, SMTP/WAP 260, and IVR 262. Mobilesubscribers 264 interact with the system through connectivity 252.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a development process 402 may comprise a userexperience 404, technical capability 408, starting points 410, channeltemplates 412, and an ‘open’ approach 414. The user experience 404comprises customer lifecycle. The technical capability 408 comprisesplatform services. Starting points 410 comprise content. In any event,all content may be subject to channel templating 412. The ‘open’approach 414 facilitates user access to a variety of local, personalizedand national content channels.

The elements depicted in flow charts and block diagrams throughout thefigures imply logical boundaries between the elements. However,according to software or hardware engineering practices, the depictedelements and the functions thereof may be implemented as parts of amonolithic software structure, as standalone software modules, or asmodules that employ external routines, code, services, and so forth, orany combination of these, and all such implementations are within thescope of the present disclosure. Thus, while the foregoing drawings anddescription set forth functional aspects of the disclosed systems, noparticular arrangement of software for implementing these functionalaspects should be inferred from these descriptions unless explicitlystated or otherwise clear from the context.

Similarly, it will be appreciated that the various steps identified anddescribed above may be varied, and that the order of steps may beadapted to particular applications of the techniques disclosed herein.All such variations and modifications are intended to fall within thescope of this disclosure. As such, the depiction and/or description ofan order for various steps should not be understood to require aparticular order of execution for those steps, unless required by aparticular application, or explicitly stated or otherwise clear from thecontext.

The methods or processes described above, and steps thereof, may berealized in hardware, software, or any combination of these suitable fora particular application. The hardware may include a general-purposecomputer and/or dedicated computing device. The processes may berealized in one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, embeddedmicrocontrollers, programmable digital signal processors or otherprogrammable device, along with internal and/or external memory. Theprocesses may also, or instead, be embodied in an application specificintegrated circuit, a programmable gate array, programmable array logic,or any other device or combination of devices that may be configured toprocess electronic signals. It will further be appreciated that one ormore of the processes may be realized as computer executable codecreated using a structured programming language such as C, an objectoriented programming language such as C++, or any other high-level orlow-level programming language (including assembly languages, hardwaredescription languages, and database programming languages andtechnologies) that may be stored, compiled or interpreted to run on oneof the above devices, as well as heterogeneous combinations ofprocessors, processor architectures, or combinations of differenthardware and software.

Thus, in one aspect, each method described above and combinationsthereof may be embodied in computer executable code that, when executingon one or more computing devices, performs the steps thereof. In anotheraspect, the methods may be embodied in systems that perform the stepsthereof, and may be distributed across devices in a number of ways, orall of the functionality may be integrated into a dedicated, standalonedevice or other hardware. In another aspect, means for performing thesteps associated with the processes described above may include any ofthe hardware and/or software described above. All such permutations andcombinations are intended to fall within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the preferredembodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications andimprovements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled inthe art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present invention isnot to be limited by the foregoing examples, but is to be understood inthe broadest sense allowable by law.

All documents referenced herein are hereby incorporated by reference.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: organizing content from aplurality of data sources having information relevant to a channel;transforming the content into short messages suitable for delivery to auser via at least two of SMS, MMS, WAP, e-mail, and the Internet; andmanaging a script of such messages, wherein the next short message in aseries is based on a user response to a prior short message in theseries.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, approving thecontent of the message prior to transmitting the messages.
 3. The methodof claim 1 wherein the source is a feed.
 4. The method of claim 1wherein the source is an author.
 5. The method of claim 1 whereintransforming comprises at least one of text compression, casecorrection, handset display size correction, and handset aspect ratiocorrection.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein transforming comprisesadding tone to content received from a feed.
 7. The method of claim 1wherein transforming comprises adding bias to content received from afeed.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein transforming comprises addingstyle to content received from a feed.
 9. The method of claim 1 whereinthe messages relate to at least one of content delivery, useracquisition, subscription, billing, and profile management.
 10. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the script is a message flow template
 11. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising associating an advertisement withthe message.
 12. The method of claim 1 wherein associating theadvertisement with the message is done contextually.
 13. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising, soliciting a response message, wherein theresponse comprises a short form command structure.
 14. The method ofclaim 13 wherein the short form command is at least one of a number, aletter, a short word, a code, and a combination of a letter and anumber.
 15. The method of claim 13 wherein the short form command isunique to at least one of an individual user, a set of users withsimilar subscription profiles, a channel, and each channel to which auser is subscribed.
 16. The method of claim 1 wherein the messagecontent relates to at least one of weather, advertising, news, sports,entertainment, lifestyle, culture, community, user-generated content,and social networking.
 17. A method, comprising: organizing content froma plurality of data sources having information relevant to a channel;transforming the content into short messages suitable for delivery toand presentation on a handset; and managing a script of such shortmessages based on user responses, the script determining a next shortmessage based on a user response to a previous short message.
 18. Themethod of claim 17 further comprising, approving the content of themessage prior to transmitting the messages.
 19. The method of claim 17wherein the source is a feed.
 20. The method of claim 17 wherein thesource is an author.